Ep01 - Trending in Tesla: NEW Cybertruck Leaks, Model 3 Refresh
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- None of this stuff is by accident. - Yeah, exactly. - They don't take these price changes lightly, I'm sure. They know exactly when Juniper's gonna be released. They know exactly when Model 3's coming to the US market. - Don't call me Project Highland. Don't call me Model 3. What are they calling it? Like, why would somebody want to buy a Model S

I wonder what colors we're gonna start seeing more of. - People's true colors will come out when you don't have to pay for the colors. - There's been so much news that has come out this last month with Tesla. So we have to sit down and discuss it all. I had PJ with me today. There's a new refresh model three uncovered in the US. - Yeah, don't call it a refresh model three. It has a new name now, we'll touch on that, which now has some major implications of when it's going to be available. - Also Cybertruck, lots of news coming out that we've seen a lot of leaked images

even a video of the Cybertruck going off-roading. So let's dive into it. So remember that video I made about Aptera's solar powered EV? It has a thousand miles of range and it's going into production sometime next year. Well, Sustainability Sooner reached out to me to sponsor this portion of the video. They have a really unique sweepstakes. Unlike

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That's $15,000 to cover the delivery and the taxes. For your chance to enter, check out the link in the description below and let's get to the next story. So let's just dive right into it talking about the Model 3 because really that's all anyone cares about at least. So there has been some new dash cam footage that came out this last week. A viewer of the channel Danielle posted this video. So let's take a look at that video.

It's short, it's quick. And it's a classic Tesla cam footage too, right? When the clip kind of cuts out right where you need it most. Because we're seeing a Model 3, it is not covered up. Yeah, this is the first time we've seen an uncovered refreshed Model 3 in the U.S. Of course, for over a year, we've seen these covered up and being tested out in California roads. This is the first time we're seeing it uncovered. And it's not orange. Danielle's already confirmed to us that this is actually a red car. As you know, with the dash cam footage, it kind of alters the colors a little bit. It is completely out there in the open. I think at this point,

point they don't care they've already ripped the band-aid off right like we've seen what the refresh model 3 looks like now which i think is kind of weird right it's for tesla they've always kind of kept things under wraps and then have it announced in the u.s this is the first time we're seeing this be announced and brought to market overseas first they're obviously not concerned about cutting down on model 3 sales so far this year 250 000 model wives have been registered in the u.s

About 130,000 Model 3s have been registered. So it's almost a two to one ratio there for how popular the Y is. So maybe they just, they don't care if three sales even drop off more before they move on to it. Yeah, so I definitely have some thoughts on that. So for those of you also that don't know, which I think most people know, the new Model 3, which we'll get into that a little bit here, but the new Model 3 is only available in Germany, Japan,

Japan and Australia. By available you mean you can now pre-order them. They'll be delivered, I believe in Japan between October and December and then Germany's right around that same time period November, December and then in Australia beginning in January of 24. So question for you, how many people in the US are going to order it overseas and have it shipped here? I've heard of a few millionaires who've done that with other cars that are not available here and then imported them, paid the tariffs, paid the taxes to get them into the US.

I don't know if the Model 3 is the type of vehicle, but I guess if you're a Tesla fanatic with lots of money. He's not crazy about Tesla, though. I could see somebody, you know, wanting this to be the first one in the U.S. They want that, you know, ultra red Model 3, and they do that. I bet someone will do it. And if you do, give me a call because we'll put you on the channel. And the charge ports on them are not going to be compatible with the U.S. too. That's one thing to... But going into this, okay, so it is not Project Highland. It is not...

The refreshed Model 3. Don't call me Project Highland. Don't call me Model 3. What are they calling it? Apparently, there's two versions that are going to be available of the refreshed Model 3, but they're going to call it Model 3 Plus and then just Model 3. And it isn't clear exactly what kind of designates the Model 3 Plus, but according to the Chinese Ministry of Industry website that has kind of publicized these variants of Model 3s, they've now received regulatory approval. They're saying that the Model 3 Plus is perfect.

Probably going to be the long-range version, the Model 3, without that plus moniker next to it is going to be just the standard range version. Initially, I thought maybe it was kind of like the P90 Plus, remember? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. People used to confuse that with the P90X workout tapes. But the P90 Plus was kind of the performance version of the Model S back in the early days. So they'll have like the older...

classic Model 3 and then they'll also have the newer Model 3 both available at the same time. - Here's what's happening. In the US market, we've seen the prices of inventory Model 3s drop by as much as $2,000. So it's still brand new Model 3s and this is very standard practice for automakers to kind of reduce those prices ahead of bringing it to market. So the big question is,

We just talked about when this Model 3 is coming to other markets, but is the U.S. imminent now that they're letting it roam free in California without a cover on it? But if you look at the badging, it's kind of interesting because Tesla's gone minimalistic on these cars, but then the badging is kind of a lot of letters, a lot going on. Model 3 Plus, the letters are pretty big and bold. So it doesn't look like the minimalist badging that we've seen on Tesla over the years, but maybe that's just for that market. Yeah.

So it would be interesting, though, if they had both available for U.S. markets at the same time, trying to get rid of some of the old inventory and then the new one for maybe people that don't like all the changes with the Model 3. I mean, there are a lot of changes, which, you know, we haven't talked about that publicly yet, like what our thoughts are on this

new um model three i guess model three plus plus yeah and then what do i call it like first gen model three or just model three yeah i mean the changes are significant enough to where it is definitely next gen to me at least you know you look at the soundproofing better aerodynamics better range significantly improved interior even the lag time on the screen is improved there's other interior touches like the blind spot detection that's in there now i think we'll

people are talking about the most right there is the stockless nature of it and being able to kind of go between drive it's like the model s and the model x now the newer the newer refreshed model x and you know what's crazy is just how negative the perception is towards stockless everyone loves the design the rear the front the interior and they're like give us our stocks and i understand the yoke perspective because that definitely takes a little bit of an adjustment period

But I think once you go stockless, almost everyone is going to love it. I think that what they're doing with the 3, again, they're trying to push sales of the 3. Obviously, the Y has been their most successful car. So that's why they're refreshing the 3 before the Y. Yeah.

But does it get you excited for things to come to the Model Y? Yeah, it's Project Juniper, right? Is that what they're going with? I think that's what I was most surprised about was how are they handling this? Because you've got to know that, of course, the Model Y is lapping Model 3 sales. It's one of the most popular cars in the world and one of the best-selling cars in the world.

And now it doesn't have a lot of these features, but for how long? Like are they, we're not seeing Project Juniper wrapped Model Ys running around like we've been with a 3. So are they thinking, hey, it's basically the same thing. We don't need to test it, which I doubt that's the case.

I do think it's going to be. You think so? They're not going to test it on the Y body? No, I think they will test it, but I do think it's going to be the same thing as the 3. I think it's going to be. How do you give the SUV, which has more families likely in it, and not give them the rear screen where the 3 is getting the rear screen? Well, the new Model Y will.

Yeah, but I'm just saying it almost made sense to bring them in together. Well, that's why they had to do the three first because they needed to boost those sales. Otherwise, most people would go for the three versus the Y. I know for us, does it make you want to sell our Model 3? It's the first thing that's made me want to consider it. We always talk about how we just finished paying it off, so it's really nice to have that and finally be ours, but they get you right when your four or five-year loans are over.

or Juniper? Would you rather write for Juniper? Oh, definitely Juniper. I mean, I think the Y is the better of the two. I mean, it's everything the three is with more space, more utility. So the old three maybe will be our oldest son's first car when he starts driving. And then maybe that would be when you could get that refreshed, not three or Cybertruck. I mean, or something totally different. I don't know. What do you guys think? Like,

you know what kind of cars are you guys driving there's so many different options i'm wondering like why would somebody want to buy a model s now because honestly this new model 3 plus almost seems better but then the s and x prices have dropped so much that if you were in the market for something a little more premium it's it's like

20,000 more, 30,000 more. But is it really more premium other than having that name at this point? I mean, you've got the vented seats now, right? You've got interior lighting, which maybe you would think ambient lighting is going to come now to SNX at some point. It's very similar now. Yeah, you're right. I think that's why they've had these major price drops. Yeah. All right. So what are the prices right now?

Okay, so just pulling it up because it's constantly in motion, Model X is down to 79,990, which is the lowest I've seen it. I mean, I remember the 60 kilowatt hour Model X way back in the day where they tried that out. I think it was rear-wheel drive maybe even. Uh-huh.

That was about 69k. So this is an insane, insane value to the point where I finally convinced my sister to order this. She's the only one because my mom's ordered one. My mom's had a Tesla for years. Your mom got it next. Then your sister, which was hard to convince, got it. My sister has been impossible to convince because she'll flat out tell us and she knows what we do for a living. And she'll flat out tell us that she thinks Teslas are ugly. Everybody has them. It's so boring. I think it's more that everybody has them.

Yeah. And she lives in Seattle area where everyone really has them. But I think it's funny because she wanted something that was like, you know, she's like, I want something a little more affordable than what was she driving before? Yeah. She had a Land Rover Discovery something. It was 120. But it was always in the shop. Yeah.

So she never really got to drop. It's currently still in the shop. And that's why she called me and said, what's the best EV I want to get? And we first said Model Y. Definitely get a Model Y. I told her Model Y. If you want to save money, go Model Y. Yeah. And then with the price drop, we were like, absolutely.

- The price drop happened in this conversation. - Yeah, go for the X and she did it. But I have had a lot of people reaching out to me on Instagram and Twitter asking me my thoughts on that because there's some people who just took delivery of their Model X and now all of a sudden it's down like $20,000 and they're like,

How do you feel about that? How do you handle that? And this is the way that I look at it, is that if you're looking at like an OEM car, you're going to a dealership, you pay markets all the time and you don't really realize that the price is shifting the way it shifts at all. But with Tesla, everything is so transparent. It's so out here. You know, you go online, you pay one price, you order online, everyone knows what's going on and we all follow it. We're watching news. We're making a news show right now about the prices.

So we know that there's that big change going on. And then the other thing is like it's a tech card. Prices change, they go up, they go down. It could go back up again. Honestly, I could see them doing this right now because of the release of the new Model 3, people talking about Project Juniper, trying to kind of boost those sales for the Model S and Model X, which I think is what is happening.

- It's absolutely, none of this stuff is by accident. They don't take these price changes lightly, I'm sure. So it's definitely by design. They know exactly when Juniper is gonna be released. They know exactly when Model 3 is coming to the US market. So this is all kind of tugging at people's, "Ah, I could wait six months, but this is really low." - Yeah, I don't think it's gonna go down lower. I think at this point it's going to go up higher. So if you are considering a Model X, now would be the time to jump on that. Also, there's not like the paint colors.

Yes, paint colors are included. And the main reason for that is, of course, get you the tax incentive if you qualify for it because it keeps the price under 80K. That's pretty cool to see. I've never seen all paint colors included either. So yeah, it's a Tesla first. I wonder like what colors we're going to start seeing more of at this point. People's true colors will come out when you don't have to pay for the colors. Exactly.

I like that. Yeah, so with the Model S and X, the price drops. It's nothing new. Tesla's been doing this all year with its entire fleet. In fact, I think, according to Beard of Tesla, our friend on the channel here, says that 13 times Tesla's changed prices so far this year. That's pretty incredible. And again, when you're transparent, you get to see all this stuff happen versus everyone's getting a slightly different deal. But FSD has also had a price change.

It has, yeah. I think maybe the take rate's reduced a little bit because FST is getting better. That's very clear. But the price, as opposed to going up for now, has come back down a little bit. Do you still think it's overpriced? At $12,000? Absolutely. So what would be your...

What would be your price? Gosh, I think $3,000 to $5,000 is the sweet spot. Tesla probably would say $5,000. I don't think they're going to go there. No, they're not going to go there. I think they would do $5,000 to $7,000, but that would be the best case if they were to do that. So we have it in our 3. We don't have it in our X. Yeah. So if it got to what price would you buy from me in our X?

I think six is a good compromise. Six? Yeah. I can see that. That's a good price. I don't know if it will get there. I think six definitely. I could see it like 7,000. Let me know in the comments below, like what would be the price that you would jump on it at?

i'm curious what other people have to say unless you think like 12 000 is great and that's totally fine yeah basically with all these price drops tesla's essentially kind of waging a price war for other automakers because we've reviewed so many evs over the last few months comparing them specifically to tesla and a lot of them do have features that are more superior to tesla in some ways but then you look at the entire scope of the ev and tesla definitely almost always wins out so that's

It's what's interesting about all this and with the prices continually coming down, that is the biggest barrier of entry is that price point. And when that's lower, of course, Tesla is able to continue to gain market share. I heard people talk for so many years that these new EVs are gonna take from Tesla's market share and watch when they're not the only one in town. And now over 100 different options are available for EVs. And you look at the numbers, I was just pulling these up here, from January to July, Tesla's had nearly 400,000 EVs registered in the US.

That's a 50% jump from the same period in 2022 and nearly a 60% of the EV market share in the US belongs to Tesla. Again, after dozens and dozens of new EVs have been introduced in 2023 and dozens more are coming to market in 24, it's incredible that they're almost like extending the lead versus losing the market share. Well, I think that now they're able to scale and they can lower their prices and that makes it so much more competitive because it's how are you able, you

I can get a Tesla for less than I can buy this other EV. - Further looking at the market share, look at this, when pulling up the data here for Chevy, they're second place behind Tesla. Tesla again, 60% for market share. Chevy comes in second place at 6%. Almost all of those are coming in from the soon to be retired Bolt and Bolt EUV. And then you look at third place, it's Ford with 5% of the market share.

And that's down from the previous year where they had 7% of the market share. So again, Tesla kind of extending the lead with EV sales as more EVs from other manufacturers are being introduced. That to me, when I saw these stats, I was just like blown away that that kind of justifies what's happening with the price of their stock and what some of these investors are saying long-term for Tesla's potential. They're not necessarily, you know, kind of,

giving into the competition. They're extending the lead over the competition. It all comes down to the infrastructure, which Tesla in a way is kind of now hijacked, having all these other brands agree to come on board with them. So although these brands are thinking, oh my gosh, now we don't have to invest in an infrastructure, Tesla's almost kind of sneaking one past them and being like, sure, sure, come on board here. We'll eventually get your customers if we don't have them yet. Do you think that will change things though? There's a couple EVs we've reviewed where we're like, we've

really like them. See, that's the thing. It's like you initially as the customer of that EV are probably pretty excited to have this new expanded network. But then long term, is Tesla kind of getting the last laugh by having you eventually come to them for your EV needs? I mean, I'm not sure though. And then like, the other thing to think about is when you do stop at the superchargers now, are we, is it going to be a longer wait?

I don't think so because the expansion of the supercharger networks kind of brings up to something I want to talk about was that 50,000 superchargers now have been deployed across the world. That number, I think, was five about a decade ago. And this has already increased quite a bit from about a year and a half ago when it was somewhere around 30,000 to 40,000.

so i think the expansion rate is rapidly increasing enough to to justify these other oems coming on board and using tesla's chargers hilton hilton just announced like a lot of companies now are going to those are destination chargers but yeah nacs plugs correct but that makes a big deal for people that are traveling and charging because if you know you have a destination charger where you're going you don't necessarily have to stop at every supercharging stop yeah that's brilliant by the way on hilton's part like i know for a fact

next road trip we do when these are deployed. I mean, I'm not going to be going through plug share or trying to find random hotels if I know. And I think the number is somebody did the math on them of how many Hilton hotels in North America. And it was something like eight to 10 stations were going to be deployed at these hotels. And it just makes life so much easier as an EV owner. All right. So the other thing that everybody wants to know about these days, other than Model 3 is...

Cybertruck, right? The delivery event's coming up any day now. I'm wearing a shirt with our Cybertruck in case you guys want one too. Give me down below. But there have been a lot of images coming out about it.

A lot more recently in a set that kind of came out with video as well of a part of the Cybertruck we haven't really seen much of, and this is the air suspension. In fact, this image right here, courtesy of a drone operator out of the Giga Texas area, nearby supercharger, caught them side by side, plugged into the supercharger, one at the highest suspension setting we think, one of the higher suspension settings at least,

and then one near one of the lower suspension settings. So you get a good side-by-side comparison of what this is capable of. - Yeah, so it has the air suspension. So we have that with the Model X. I love it 'cause you can set it at certain locations. I'm sure you'll be able to do that with the Cybertruck. But really like the main difference with low suspension is better just for driving, cutting corners, things like that, street driving. - Yeah, better turning radius, aerodynamics, and then of course higher suspension off-road. And this is going to be their dedicated off-road vehicle.

So this is supposed to be a good one. And speaking of off-roading, there was also a video caught of it off-roading. Yeah, at the Hollister Hills Recreation Area in California. It's a pretty popular off-road trail there for a lot of Rivian owners recently. And a Jeep owner was out there earlier this week. This is a brand new video. And he caught what looks like that air suspension in action. He said Tesla was pushing the Cybertruck pretty hard. Suspension seemed to be all the way up.

let's watch the video let's watch it so we see it going the suspensions high because they're off-roading yeah it's kind of

to me. Like I feel like it does look, I don't know, I like the way it looks better when I see images of it on roads as opposed to off-roading. But it's just such a polarizing looking truck to begin with that of course it's going to look weird at first. Yeah, the highest suspension in any vehicle when you put it on the highest setting it does kind of look funny. Skinny legs sticking out. Kind of reminds me of an armadillo walking down the road.

It does look funny, but I mean, we'll see how it performs. We'll see what it's capable of. And Tesla's kind of for a long time been touting this particular feature. Even back in 2020, Elon Musk was talking about increasing the dynamic air suspension options on the Cybertruck specifically for off-road purposes. We'll see how it holds up against some of these other EVs that have been really good off-road. Yeah, so you see these two Cybertrucks, another drone footage outside of Giga, Texas. These are covered. This time they're right outside their crash labs at Giga, Texas.

Of course, NHTSA has done their, we think they've done their independent testing already. So Tesla likes to do their own testing. Historically speaking, they do additional testing on top of what NHTSA provides, maybe just for their own data. It is kind of surprising since, you know, we're around the corner. Yeah, I think that's kind of weird that the delivery event is supposed to be right around the corner.

Again, if it's internal, it's independent of what NHTSA has done in the past, probably already ready to go for public use. So maybe this is just Tesla trying to gain some final data. But Tesla's kind of teased Cybertruck crash tests already. They've teased it all year. We saw footage on their social media there where it shows the Cybertruck sitting really close to impacting the wall and the video cuts away. So you're almost like left hanging of what this is capable of. And we got the first glimpse of it just a few days ago as well. We're on the back of a bed of a truck and

and they clearly had come from being crash tested because you can see the images here of significant damage to the inside, some around the outside, some of the airbags had been deployed as well. And I think it's pretty impressive to see the little amount of damage on this particular Cybertruck. Now, we don't know exactly what level of testing was conducted on it, but it's a pretty neat shot here that someone was able to climb up on the back of the truck and snap these clips. - But what about the other people on the road? Like if we're talking about if the Cybertruck was to get an actual accident,

like this thing has this exoskeleton, but then you're going up against another car like,

I feel bad for that other car. Yeah, that's got to be something that I'm sure Tesla will address. And if they don't, the naysayers were definitely going to bring it up if it ends up being bulletproof. Can you imagine? If it ends up being bulletproof and everything else and shatterproof, and that leads to additional injuries where normal bumper-to-bumper collisions become significant damage or fatalities because of Tesla's extreme nature of engineering. But again, you would think at this point that stuff has already been

Cleared. Yeah. I'm actually hoping that the one more thing at the event will be the crash testing, that maybe they'll do that for us. How crazy would it be to see that? That would be crazy. I think there's definitely going to be a one more thing. I'm really curious what it ends up being, but there's going to be something, whether it's the Model 2, whether it's a next-gen Roadster or crash testing, there's got to be one more thing because this is going to be the event that will have the most eyes on it of any Tesla event.

Since the last one got all the attention for the last. Do you think they'll have the Model 3 Plus there? Gosh. I mean, if they do, then that night, they've got to have to roll that out on the website too, I think. Yeah. And when is this event going to be? Now, it's no longer available.

either. Like it used to be as a referral prize. Yes. Tesla's pulled that as a referral prize, maybe because it's already reached capacity. Elon has always said Cybertruck deliveries by the end of Q3, which would be 30th of September. Yeah. So we're right, right up there. So I thought it would be this week or next week, but still we haven't heard anything yet. So if it falls on our son Liam's birthday, like, can I bring Liam and you stay home?

I will have to talk about that off camera. The other thing that people are talking about, I know a lot of big news, is this new Elon Musk book that is coming out. So I actually have not read it yet, full disclosure, but I have seen a lot of articles. I'd be impressed if you have since it came out two days ago and it's like 600 pages. What I would like to do actually with you guys is do a book club.

where we do like the first three chapters, discuss it, maybe do a live. Let me know down below in the comments below if you guys would be interested in doing an Elon Musk book club where you guys can give me your input and we do the live together. Maybe you can help me read the comments

and we just talk about it and we do it like three chapters at a time because it's a pretty big book. Yeah, I've heard from the few people that have read the first couple of chapters that it gets pretty hot and heavy very quickly. So I'm sure if we do get a dialogue going with the audience here, it's going to be really fascinating to see...

the kind of the layers of Elon Musk peeled back and see what people really think about it. There's also images, I saw something and I think it was like a robo-taxi image and potential like, you know, there's some Tesla stuff and there's some good stuff in there. So yeah, I think it'd be fun to discuss with you guys.

And kind of on that note with the book club, let me know in the comments down below what you think of this sort of idea, this more podcast style. We just have a discussion with you guys. What you think of this? Would you like to see more of this style video? Let us know down in the comments below. And thank you guys for supporting our channel. We're both wearing shirts from our shop. You can click the links down below or go to our website. And as always, we'll catch you guys next time. Take care.

So I have been driving our Model X now for what, about a year? Over a year now. Over a year now. And I was actually nervous about that as well. Like that was a big thing for me. I'm like, what if I don't like this? What if I order this and I hate it? Like what am I going to do if I want to go back to like my old Model X? But I will say it was such an easy transition. And one of my favorite features on it is having the turn signals on.

Right on it. Like, it's so easy. That's what I think people will like. Yeah, and the horn is in the middle on this Model 3, right? I know. I've been asking for that. I think people will like it. But it's one of those things where you're kind of unsure. It's unknown. It's something so different than the traditional steering wheel that we've all been driving forever. So it's kind of scary to take that jump. But I do think of it like a rotary phone.

you know, where you have that little wheel versus like a cell phone and all these things now. It's like once you do make that leap, you can't really go back. And I even, I even like, so our model three that we have, our old model three, I put a yoke on it. Um,

And I made a video. You guys have probably seen it. I'll link it down below. But I like the yoke so much in our Model X that we put the yoke on our 3. Now, I still have the stocks on the Model 3, and I'm always like, I wish I don't have those anymore. It feels really archaic now. Well, what I'll say is that my 67-year-old mom, who got the 2012 Model S over 10 years ago, upgraded then to a Model 3 back in 18, I think, when it came out, 17, 18. And then in 22, she got the Model S Refresh.

And she wanted me to fly back home and help her learn how to use the stockless driving. Now they refuse to drive their other SUV, their gas car. And they want to drive that because like literally mom and dad are fighting over who gets to drive the stockless because of how much they enjoy the stockless. You know, like going reverse.

on the screen, like that takes a little bit and like driving forward, that takes a little bit of getting used to. I know if you put your foot on the brake, you have the option of it choosing which direction. - It doesn't do a good job choosing it. - That's what I was gonna say, you have to be careful with that one. - It'll wanna go right into the wall sometimes. - You can like have the video going. - Give me your clap. - Clap on, clap off. - Alrighty then.