Probably, the made the Model 3 uglier on purpose, to differentiate from the luxury Model S. Buy yeah I agree there is no motor in front, so they had all freedom to come up with some nice design... the front portion could look a lot better, and the interior is very essential, like a 1980s asian car with an Android tablet taped on, if you ask me.
Not sure what similarities you found in these two cars. For me model 3 looks amazing considering its price category, both interior and exterior. Chevy bolt looks like a cheap Chinese toy compared to model 3 in my opinion.
Why was this underwhelming ? Elon unveiled the most important aspects - speed, range, safety, price and the range anxiety question - how many superchargers.
I agree that his delivery style is underwhelming and there's a lot of debate about that. I am personally fine with an underwhelming presentation and an overwhelming product.
There were two big things missing for me that I was hoping to get tonight. First was delivery estimates. They have given general production numbers and rough estimates on when you receive the car if you order today, but existing reservation holders have no idea when they will have the option to purchase and/or receive the car or even the expected lead time between purchasing and delivery. Second thing missing for me was an idea of options for the car. There is still no real information on what options will be available for the car, when they will be available, and what they will cost.
These two issues mean there is still very little information for reservation holders. There seems to be a window of about $15k and 6 months for the cost and potential delivery date of the car.
130 mph top speed for the base model.
Weight: 3549 lb.
220 mile range.
The design mission of this car is very conservative: freeway travel at 70-80 mph, for several hours, with 4 people and their luggage. The payload (I'll guess 900lb) is similar to what you'd need in a Toyota or Mercedes.
However, this is lousy for urban vehicles/pedestrians/congestion. For example, in San Francisco, I need a 50 mph vehicle that can carry 2 people. And at 50 mph, I can drive to Palo Alto in less than an hour.
Could Tesla give me a 1000lb/50mph vehicle? I bet SpaceX could.
I'm sure spaceX could, or telsa, or any other car manufacturer. Problem is car owners have ever higher standards. They want stereos that are better than their home system (100s of watts and a dozen speakers), elaborate dual zone heating cooling systems, phone chargers, dozens or so airbags, power seats, power windows, power outlets, usb ports, tv's for entertaining the kids, etc.
Motor trend or similar magazine ran a 50 year anniversary issue including the car weight of every car they reviewed in the last 50 years. The average went from under 2000 to almost 4000. I suspect the toughest design criteria is letting a human survive a crash with a 6000 pound SUV.
Sadly the low cost of oil has resulted in the huge SUVs being still quite popular.
If you want an under 1000 pounds vehicle that can carry 2 people get an electric motorcycle.
Yup. That may be a smarter move in the U.S. right now because you should still get the $7,500 federal tax incentive, whereas if you order Model 3 today, there will have been >200,000 sold by the time you receive with lessens or removes the incentive.
The credit isn't removed immediately when they hit that number, but stopped in that /quarter/, then gradually reduced. So if they play games with delivery dates, they can maximize how many people can get the credit.
I was talking with a person who works at Tesla tonight during the stream, and he repeatedly said (paraphrasing):
"This is why we've been anti-selling, people keep running away with the hype and assuming things like HUD or autonomous charging is coming with the 3. People were convincing themselves Tesla was going to release a more advanced S for a third of the price, which is plainly a silly expectation."
The lower capacity one will start at $35k, have 220 mile range, 5.6 sec 0-60 time, and 130 mph top speed.
The higher capacity one will start at $44k, have 310 mile range, 5.1 sec 0-60 time, and 140 mph top speed.
EDIT: For comparison the Chevy Bolt starts at $37,495, has 238 mile range, 6.3 sec 0-60 time, and 91 mph top speed.