Issue 162  February 2nd 2018

Dave Morin, founder of Path and VC firm Slow Ventures, recently tweeted about his experience of being a new Model 3 owner. He said that after two days of driving in his Tesla Model 3, “it is, by far, the single best product I have ever experienced”. When asked for more reasons why he though the Model S was “better” than the Model S, Morin replied, “Some things in life can’t be explained in words, you just have to experience them. The entire feeling is better, it’s really extraordinary.”

Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) is a YouTuber who is known for his quality tech videos.  His YouTube channel has over 5.7 million subscribers, and he’s been a Model S owner for some time.  His Project Loveday Contest video won first place last year. I was able to meet Marques at the Model 3 delivery event last year and got a chance to talk with him as we were waiting for our Model 3 test rides.  Tesla had invited him to the event as a contest winner. Recently Marques was invited by Tesla to test drive a Model 3 for a week. This afternoon Marques was able to upload his Episode 1 of his Model 3 test drive.  Within 5 hours it’s already been viewed 170,000 times.

Caresoft Global, an engineering firm in the Chicago area, has purchased several Model 3 cars from early owners and is selling data to Tesla’s competitors. According to the WSJ, Caresoft takes CT scans of the Model 3 to create digital designs and virtual simulations of the Model 3 to understand it’s design and build. Caresoft claims 10 auto makers are customers of its services. They charge upward of $500,000 for their data. According to their website, their process includes “deriving engineering data and drawing technical inferences from over 125 data sets & reports arising from full vehicle High-Energy Scan and traditional tear down.”

I’ve been driving my Model 3 for over 3 weeks now, and on average I’ve stopped by about 3-5 public places (like supermarkets, stores, malls, parks, farmers market, etc) every day.  I’m also on the local roads quite a bit as well.  But one thing I’ve noticed is that there haven’t been as many people as I expected who recognize the Model 3.  It’s only rarely will a person recognize that my car is a Model 3 and give it a second look.  For example, one person next to me at a stop light took out his phone and took a quick pic of my phone.  But this hasn’t been common. I remember when I got my Model S back in beginning of 2014.  There were far more people who noticed the car, took pictures, and asked questions about it.

The Model 3 is in a completely different class of vehicle than the Leaf.  The Model 3 is in the luxury compact sports sedan market, where it’s main competitors are the BMW 3 series, Mercedes C class, Audi A4, Lexus IS, Cadillac ATS, etc.  The luxury compact sports sedan market is one of the most competitive markets in the auto world with many of the most venerable auto makers vying for position.  And Tesla’s aim is to not just to compete with other cars in its class but to make a car that is clearly superior in every way. And similar to how Tesla has managed to dominate the large luxury sedan market with the Model S, Tesla’s aim is to dominate the luxury compact sport sedan market with the Model 3.

The folks behind teslawirelesspad.com are preparing on release a wireless charging pad that will fit in the exact location of the existing charging Tesla pad in the Model 3. The new pad is made with TPU coating and positioning rails so that the phone will be kept in place while driving. Another great feature of this custom wireless pad is that it has two wireless coils, one for each phone. This way you can charge two phones wirelessly at the same time. Customer deliveries to early subscribers are planned for April 2018.

I personally have been searching for a wireless charger that would look good and wouldn’t add bulk to my Model 3 charging pad, and I think this is going to be great solution.