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Sandy Munro Speaks About the Compact Car
At a Panel event, Sandy Munro had some things to say about Tesla and the $24,000 Model or Compact Vehicle. One of the questions asked was Tesla and the next generation platform. Tesla stated on the earnings call that they were working on a car that is half the cost of the Model 3.
Sandy was asked if he sees anything that's going to stop Tesla from achieving that goal and Sandy said, "No." Everybody laughed. Sandy said he knows many things about where you can take weight out and modify the battery. He tore down a Tesla Model 3.
He said the compact car is not going to be a rocket ship like the rest of the Tesla vehicles. But it's going to transport people from here to there and that it's 100% possible. It will just be a lesser version of Tesla's current vehicles.
Sandy was at Giga Texas and was asked how big of a change it will be to make the factories have these cost reductions and processes needed to make the compact car.
Sandy said the battery is going to be a change and it needs to be at least LFP batteries. They have the same Energy, but not the same power. The can't discharge as quickly as the other batteries. For most people, they don't drive like a maniac and will get great use out of the car going from point A to point B.
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What Does Tesla Need to Do?
Sandy says if you have LFP batteries, it will be like driving a normal ICE vehicle, maybe a little quicker, but at the end of the day, it's not going to be a Model 3 or a Model S.
The car is going to transport people safely and that's an important thing. The lower part of the body will be two castings most likely - a front and a rear and joined somewhere in between. He guesses that because there is a 9,000 ton molding machine and it's destined somewhere for North America. Sandy says it takes less than a second for a giga press to make the mold for a vehicle.
Tesla needs to create the production lines for this vehicle - either in existing giga factories, or in new giga factories. That means adding it to Giga Texas - which has a ton of space, or in a gigafactory, possibly in Mexico or Asia or Europe somewhere.
This car will have LFP batteries. It will be smaller than a Model 3. It won't have as powerful of an electric motor. It will do 0 to 60 miles per hour in most likely 7 or 8 seconds. It may not even have a back seat - or it will be a two seater with seats that move forward.
The advantage to using two giga castings is that they will be the same every time. The doors will be the same every time - they will open and close the same every time. It will be a streamlined process and every part will fit perfectly. The faster Tesla can get to this product, the better. This vehicle will be much more safe than any other $24,000 vehicle on the market.
Will you get a Tesla compact car when it comes out? When do you think it's going to come out?
For more information, see this video from CleanTechnica:
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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.
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