I have a strong feeling Tesla is actually going for this car-as-service route with their Model 3. It might not be even a 'new' car which can be bought. Instead it could be just modified/stripped Model S with autonomous driving. But this is just my guessing as this would be something which I would do if I had a role in Tesla.
Why I have this 'feeling'. European trend seems to be away from owning the car. It's a nuisance. Also. The thing is, while Tesla is doing many things right, they do not perhaps realize how all other car manufacturers are going to hit below $100/kWh with their batteries very quickly. And that's at the pack level. It looks like that since factory investment costs are dropping like a rock now. Water based process and some other things rethought has brought us to close where one machine builds the cells without dry/clean room requirements. Also it's super fast that way with much less work force needed to operate. Investment cost was about $1/Wh/annum in 2010. GigaFactory is going for 10c/Wh/annum (while includes raw material processing). But we are going to see well below 1c/Wh/annum costs before 2018. Calculations reveal even lower numbers but there are still few questions to be answered before we have a completely tested and working dry powder process. So I see no trouble in achieving end customer prices of $100/kWh at pack level. If Model 3 is going be sold at $35k there is going to be a lot of $20k versions from Nissan/Ford/GM etc. This calls for the superior Tesla mentality to rethink/reinvent the business. -Jukka p.s.- This $/Wh/annum is a way to compare how much the initial investment cost is compared the factory output on the 1st full production year. It's easily misused but in this case it gives a good way to compare 'apples' to 'other apples' and what you get with your money. 2015-10-08 11:38 GMT+03:00 brucedp5 via EV <ev@lists.evdl.org>: > > > http://www.t3.com/features/bmw-drivenow-hands-on > We tested BMW's DriveNow on-street car hire service and IMMEDIATELY crashed > the car > By Duncan Bell [20151002] > > [image > http://media.t3.com/img/resized/bm/xxl_BMW-DriveNow2-970-80.jpg > (i3) > ] > > Available in the London area, we reckon it was definitely the other guy's > fault > > BMW's DriveNow service allows Londoners to pick up a choice of BMW and MINI > cars, including the T3 Award-winning, all-electric BMW i3. We tried it out, > and almost immediately got involved in a crash, but up to that point we > were > highly impressed. > > The DriveNow service is available in the north east of London only so far, > on the areas covered by this map. There are 270 cars in total, including > BMW > 1 Series and Mini Countrymans (Countrymen?) and the big prize, 30 BMW i3 > electric cars. > > You register here [ > https://uk.drive-now.com/#!/register/1 > ]- there's a £29 fee - and download the app [ > https://uk.drive-now.com/ > ], which is for iOS only, here. The app's key functionality - unlocking the > cars - also works on Apple Watch. > > The killer feature of DriveNow is that you can leave the cars anywhere you > want, within the above zone. Well okay, you can't leave them blocking a > junction, but you can freely deposit them in any parking space, gratis. > > We found registration straightforward, apart from the fact that it took > three attempts to upload our documents. It also took a day or so for the > driving history to start appearing. > > With the likes of Zipcar well established, this kind of on-street, smart > car-hiring service is not new but BMW has innovated by adding features such > as having a fuel guage on the app, and also an easy filtering system to > find > the type of car you're after. > > The app's sidebar is overly busy with options and could do with some > reorganisation, and it's not very clear that you can use the app to call > customer services, especially when you are, for instance, in a panicked > mindset after an accident. > > Now, to be fair, we only discovered this because, upon settling into our > BMW > i3, having opened it via the app, we set off and were almost immediately > involved in a minor shunt that we swear is not our fault. We eventually > managed to contact customer services via the car's onboard computer, and > they were very helpful. > > DriveNow is a joint venture between BMW and rental company Sixt SE, with > Vodafone providing the communications infrastructure in London. It operates > in eight cities around the world as well as London: Berlin, Hamburg, > Munich, > Cologne, Dusseldorf, San Francisco, Vienna, Copenhagen and Norwich. No > okay, > not Norwich. > > The nature of DriveNow is such that you don't have to pay for tax or fuel, > and insurance is also included. Although to quite what extent the insurance > covers you, we'll have to let you know once this thing works itself out. > > Other costs are 39p per minute when driving, 19p per minute when parked up > without having ended the hire period, and you do have to cough up for > London's much-loved congestion zone (£11.50 during peak hours), if you > enter > it. Unless, that is, you're in an i3, because that, as a non-polluting EV, > is exempt. > > These are all cool cars to drive, especially the i3 and the ability to park > wherever you want is great. However, the relatively small area of London > covered by the service makes it hard to give a big, general thumbs-up to > the > service, unless you live, work, shop and do business within that zone ... > [© Future Publishing] > > > > > http://www.examiner.com/article/bmw-s-drivenow-electric-car-service-short-circuited-san-francisco > October 5, 2015 ... BMW is pulling the plug on its DriveNow electric > car-sharing program which lets motorists to rent electric cars by the > minute > due to problems with “parking permit regulations, in San Francisco, ... the > company ... will look t offer its services elsewhere ... suspending the > service there as of November 2, ... it, “fully expects to return once the > city reforms its parking policies to allow for one-way car sharing.” ... > > http://www.autonews.com/article/20151005/RETAIL/151009908/bmw-car-sharing-program-quits-san-francisco > > > > http://evfleetworld.co.uk/news/2015/Oct/DriveNow-adds-further-BMW-i3s-to-electric-car-sharing-fleet-in-London/0438021909 > DriveNow adds further BMW i3s to electric car sharing fleet in London > 07 Oct 2015 Car sharing specialist DriveNow has boosted its fleet of BMW > i3s in the Capital with 20 new vehicles. The latest BMW i3s joins the > existing 30 on the DriveNow fleet and are available for pick-up and > drop-off > anywhere in the boroughs of Hackney, Islington, ... > > > > > For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: > http://evdl.org/evln/ > > > {brucedp.150m.com} > > -- > View this message in context: > http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/When-testing-DriveNow-hire-service-we-IMMEDIATELY-crashed-their-i3-EV-tp4677966.html > Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at > Nabble.com. > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA ( > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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