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Comment by ta8645 | Hacker News Reader

Not sure how it will affect things going forward, but the Model 3 may help. Jay Leno did an excellent segment about it a few weeks back, with a pair of Tesla engineers:

https://youtu.be/WLMalLy_3JU

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Making more Model 3s than Tesla can sell is a big part of the problem. The Model 3 and Y account for 43,000 out of the 46,000 unit overrun.

Tesla don't even dare show the Model 3 numbers. I suspect they are very, very low in comparison to the Model Y, looking at official sales numbers tracked in other countries.

If I were a Tesla stockholder I would be very disappointed in Tesla not breaking down sales like every other car manufacturer does.

It's starting to look increasingly boneheaded to spend time and money on the Cybertruck instead of a new lower-cost SUV (the Model Y isn't really a SUV in my book). Their platform is starting to feel dated compared to the competition. I'm sure some stuff from the Cybertruck platform will trickle down to the next like steer-by-wire and 800 V (which they are catching up on), but since I don't build cars, I don't know how amenable that platform is to build normal cars on.

Production constraints could be a regional problem. Model 3 highland only recently started showing up in inventory in the US and for now, it's only the standard range models and there are no inventory discounts. No long-range models are showing up in inventory (for me at least?). Plenty of Y are in inventory. I'd have bought one in Q1 but I don't qualify for the tax credit, so I went used.

Until Tesla changes their Model 3 sourcing to be eligible for the $7500 tax credit, I don’t understand who would buy one over the Model Y even with the “highland” improvements.

I don't know if it's the tax credit you're referring to, but in that video (15:35), they claim with tax credits the model 3 is available for under $30,000

https://youtu.be/WLMalLy_3JU?t=935

Only the performance Model 3 is currently eligible for the Federal tax credit[1]. They may be referring to some generous state EV credits.

[1] https://insideevs.com/news/700533/tesla-model-3-rwd-long-ran...

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