If you haven’t heard of Tesla’s newest model, the model 3, it is basically being panned as the most affordable electric vehicle yet. With production to start near the end of the year and the car being available to purchase in mid 2018, it is quickly approaching and will soon be seen much more on the roads. So what is so special about the model 3 and why are some people relating it to Ford’s Model-T?
So to begin, the car is actually very affordable for what you are getting with the price starting at 35,000 USD and even lower in some states. That might seem like a lot to many people, but you have to factor in money you save without having to purchase gasoline and that most likely you will be driving this car for a long time because new features can be easily updated via the internet. The most desirable of which being high functioning driverless capabilities.
The model 3 is going to come with 8 cameras, supersonic and radar sensors all which will be the basis for future updates that will perfect driverless capabilities. Elon Musk has stated that they still have a target set for 2020 to be able to service most people’s commute to and from work without ever touching the steering wheel. In addition he says the first cross country trip without ever touching the steering wheel is most likely going to take place by the end of this year. Basically moving us ever closer to the era of completely driverless vehicles.
Whether or not Tesla is able to deliver on the exact timeframe, we will most likely see their goals hit pretty relative to their estimations. The model 3 even if purchased now will be able to support all the updates in the future which, if the car works well, makes it a great purchase. Tesla will most likely release another model in the future, before full driverless capability, but if you want to go fully electric on a semi reasonable budget, this might be your best bet to purchase something that will be future proof.
So why are some relating it to the Ford Model-T? Well there are more than one reasons here, the first being that it is a relatively inexpensive compared to other electric vehicles, with much of the added expense coming from the cost of the batteries that actually run the car. Tesla is building their own factories to product batteries, cutting out middlemen and hoping to create better methods of production and having even cheaper cars in the future.
Fords model-T, which was the first mass commercially successful automobile was released for 850$ in 1908 which is about $23,000 adjusted for inflation today, but the car did not last as long and had more maintenance issues to make sure it was working, so the normal operational price on a day to day basis cost more. So it is not completely different to relate the two prices of each car as similar. There is also hope that in the future if they are able to lower the cost of lithium batteries that they can release the car for much cheaper.
As someone who isn’t the greatest fan of driving, I am hopefully optimistic that Tesla is able to meet their goals by 2020 at which point I will definitely be purchasing some sort of car with driverless capabilities. I can only hope that in time the price of production can become even cheaper to the point that electric driverless vehicles are everywhere on the road and not just in wealthy areas.