By “you,” we mean those of you not living in China. In that country, however, customers will soon have access to a Tesla Model 3 variant with more range than what’s available in North America.
As Tesla’s Shanghai assembly plant ramps up production and adds more variation to its offerings, Tesla is in a good position to dominate the country’s “new energy vehicle” market. It also frees itself from import tariffs that suppressed sales via higher sticker prices.
The model revealed Friday is a rear-drive version of the Model 3 Long Range, which Reuters cites as having significantly more than 600 kilometers of driving range. That’s roughly 400 miles on (slightly more optimistic) overseas driving cycles.
A RWD Long Range once graced Tesla’s U.S. online showroom, but alas, no more.
Previously, Chinese buyers were able to buy an imported AWD Long Range model built in California, with customers swallowing the import costs. The longer-ranged new model is said to carry an after-subsidy entry price of just over $48,000. The imported AWD model (range: 322 miles) set buyers back more than $62,500. Deliveries begin in June.
Early next year, Shanghai will begin cranking out Performance variants of the model 3, dropping that model’s price from above $72,000 to below $60,000.
News of the new additions to Tesla’s Chinese factory come as the automaker celebrates a sales milestone in that country. Despite the sales disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic (a scourge China says it has now mostly eradicated), March proved to be Tesla’s best sales month to date in the People’s Republic. The 10,160 Tesla vehicles delivered last month made up 30 percent of the country’s battery electric vehicle volume.
[Image: Aleksei Potov/Shutterstock]
The AWD 3 322 mile range is the EPA rating. In China they use the NEDC rating.
US made LR AWD: EPA 322 miles, WLTP 348 miles, NEDC 385 miles.
US LR RWD (before they discontinued it) had a NEDC range of 419 miles. So this new one for China actually has less range than the previous US LR RWD Model 3.
The same thing happened with the Taycan launch and pre-release press. Porsche reported the WLTP rating, but the media left that out when reporting so people thought that was EPA rated miles. To be comparable, you have to use the same units of measurement.
The media falls for this every time. Of course, the headline wants you to feel cheated by Tesla.
Why do all the reviews state range in miles or kilometers in NA or Europe or some other test?
Why can’t we just get the available capacity of the battery in KW-hrs, just like we get the capacity of the fuel tank, and let us judge for ourselves?
I think we all realize that 50 liters of fuel is not going to go as far in a Suburban than a Civic so why dumb down the spec? It is about time we start thinking of energy consumption in KW-hrs/100 km.
Because people want to know how far they can drive?
“I think we all realize that 50 liters of fuel is not going to go as far in a Suburban than a Civic so why dumb down the spec?”
the point is so you can have at least an approximate comparison between a Civic and an Elantra. Simply saying “just tell me how big their gas tanks are” doesn’t tell you anything if you don’t have the faintest idea how fast it goes through that gas.
Range should be given for highway driving at 85mph. I am not interested in range while doing 20mph or standing in traffic.
@slawek: Here’s a range table: https://teslike.com/range/
There are probably other sources as well. I think I’ve even seen numbers for 130 or 140 mph out there somewhere.
Math is hard for most people, especially those educated in the U.S.
What’s so hard about math? Every cellphone has a calculator. Or you are talking abut calculus and functional analysis?
He doesn’t know what those are. Just wanted to get his little dig in.
Math is hard for most people, especially those educated in the U.S.