Tesla readies smaller, cheaper crossover, sedan by 2017

• Elon Musk: $35,000 – 200 Mile Tesla Coming In 3-4 Years. Model S Refresh Around 2015, New Model In 2018 (w/video)

 

Thanks Sergio, I watched quite a bit of the meeting last night and read more on TMC.

His target is 200+. The key reason is the combination you get.
- anxiety-free EV for a high percentage of uses
- _fast_ high-speed charging _capability_
- low high-speed charging _utilization_
- low normal charge and discharge rates (in terms of C)
- performance that efficient ICEs can't match.

Remove capacity and you
- limit the range
- reduce power.
- put more stress on the battery
- lower charging mph

Capacity is _not_ redundant.

He mentioned ultracapacitors, but I don't think he was looking at those for the Gen 3. While he mentioned the density issues, he didn't even mention the cost issues.

As for all this VTG stuff: no. VTYH (Vehicle to Your Home) maybe, but for VTG for grid management they'd want something more reliable. Plus, you can't actually earn much through arbitrage, maybe a cent or two, unless you have feed-in subsidies and they wouldn't happen on a large scale so I don't see batteries getting use for that. GTV, yes, it makes sense since it's more predictable. Utilities will do their own grid storage for grid management and that's another market Tesla's looking at with their model of using optimal management of cheap cells.