Tesla has never done commercials, they don't do ads in magazines, they don't pay people at football games to talk them up. They have a website, they make blog posts. Imagine if Ford never paid for those endless car ads. Or your local chevy dealer stopped advertising all the time. Tesla doesn't do marketing in the sense that they don't pay for ads.

Imagine if they did, what their sales would be.

Do you think "build quality" has achieved its apparent importance (to some) without marketing?

For many drivers other issues take precedence.

I don't care about minor paint and panel spacing errors. It takes all of 5 minutes to get scratches after driving off the lot.

I personally hate cars but still have to drive, like the environment, want less pollution and hate car maintenance even though I can do it.

When other car's can recognize stop lights the panel spacing might be a factor.

Let's take a look at the economic models again that assume all consumers are rational agents...

Save for the small detail that 33k USD for an electric vehicle is not luxury pricing at all.

* Nissan Leaf: 31k

* Kia Soule EV: 33k

* Chevrolet Bolt: 38k

Where are you getting the 33k number? The model 3 is more like 40k base price.

in the article: "This is the takeaway from Nikkei Business Publications' teardown of the Model 3, the most affordable car in the U.S. automaker's all-electric lineup, starting at about $33,000."

Looking at very low mileage 2019 Teslas for sale on Autotrader, in the $40-50K range is about right. The cheapest used 2019 model 3 in the whole US is more than $33K. And the only 2020 examples are much more expensive.

You can argue forever about technicalities, but $33K is not an apples-to-apples comparison. In fact, I would say if you are comparing brand new 2020 cars, $50K+ for the model 3 is more realistic, and you should take into account the discounts other cars have.

they have a 35k model available by special order. But you have to go out of your way to specifically ask for it. https://www.motortrend.com/news/the-35k-tesla-model-3-is-fin...

That shows that Nikkei did not do their research. $33k is Tesla's deceptive advertising of "Price after Est. Savings". The cheapest car actually costs $40,000 plus tax.

It's actually ~$36k (without savings), but it is "off menu": https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a28691921/tesla-model-3-st...

author forgot to click the "purchase price" slider and instead rounded down the "price after potential fuel savings"

The Chevy Bolt is priced the same as the Tesla Model 3 and has less 'luxary' features. For example if you want leather in the Bolt that's extra where as it is standard on the 3. Other things the Bolt doesn't have at that price are Autopilot, DC Fast Charging, etc...

The Bolt is not priced the same as the Model 3. Examples:

https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?mdId=362...

MSRP is exactly the same as Model 3. The fact that they have to offer them 40% off MSRP because no one wants them isn't a good thing.

And yet, miraculously, the Bolt is cheaper.

The Bolt is the best value for money EV in the world at the moment. It's untouchable in price for range.

Sure, it is cheaper in the same way everything at a going out of business sale is cheaper.

Recognizing traffic lights is worth more than the cost difference.

As someone whose car recognizes traffic lights (though not with perfect accuracy), it is the most useless feature I've ever seen. Right along with recognizing garbage cans. I would not pay a dime extra for the visualizations, especially since they're quite inaccurate in many cases. So, many, cones, even when there aren't really any cones.

Does it stop for traffic lights and start for green?

There’s no leather in the Model 3. But the seat material (“vegan leather”) is very nice.

I don’t think of the money spent as buying luxury. What it’s buying are the other amazing aspects of the car. Performance, range, efficiency, connectivity, updates, safety, etc. which may have some overlap with features of luxury cars, but it’s better to think of it as a next generation car where you are paying for that new tech, and any luxury touches you may get, while not measuring up to a teak wood console in some other car, are bonuses. Instead of the teak wood and alligator leather cigar holder or whatever, you are getting AWD that beats the pants off Subaru, Audi quattro, or anyone else, and all the other amazing things Tesla gives you.

The leather is tied to the range in the model 3.

No it's not. All Model 3's produced have the same exact seats (besides the minor revisions).

You may be thinking of the originally proposed SR/SR+ half leather and half linen or whatever they were talking about. They scrapped that.

False, you cannot buy a Model 3, or any Tesla for that matter that doesn't have leather. There was a planed cloth seat for the model 3 but they scrapped that.

Is it real animal skin? As someone who opts out of leather interiors in cars, and knowing that Tesla sells well to the SV crowd, I'm surprised that there'd be no way to buy a tesla without killing some cattle.

3 and Y are vegan leather. The others had a cloth option, but for the new ones the leather will be vegan.

"vegan leather"

So, plastic.

Yes, polyurethane, which according to testing, performs better than real leather in the rubbing/scratching tests. Durability in general is superior on actual 'premium' leatherette/vegan leather offerings.

Sure, you can make crap leatherette material that is way too hot and sticky and feels like cheap vinyl, but that's not what this is.

Hopefully more like "I can't believe it's not leather".

>The power of marketing is incredible.

Tesla doesn’t advertise.

Guess who does? The car companies that you seem to think have a better price/value offering. Hmm, so yes, the power of marketing is incredible indeed.

Fixed: Tesla's marketing is so powerful, that they don't even need to advertise.

Fixed: Tesla's products are so good, they don't even need to advertise.

Oh yeah, they are at VW level regarding marketing!