Comment by torginus

I have an opinion on EVs that basically the only models that make sense are the ones shaped like the 3 and Y.

I feel like EVs are a checkbox product - you either make things 'good enough' for the customer - range, driving dynamics, power, charge speed, smart features, autonomous stuff or don't.

To get range right you need a big battery and low drag and efficiency - the only way you can make the first 2 things in the same vehicle is to create an aerodynamic shape.

This is a packaging problem, you need to make the car low, and long - so you stretch it out, so the battery can be thinner and no longer pushes up the rest of the vehicle. You also have a lot of place in the front for crash structures, and aero shaping. Finally since your car is big (D segment), you can charge more money as per conventions of the market.

If you make a C or B segment car, you either reduce the battery size to save money, which makes it impractical for general use or pack in all that stuff into a smaller volume, and you get a car thats more expensive to make than a Model 3, while having worse drag and range, while the market expects you to charge less for it.

These small cars only make sense with a small battery, but you wouldn't want one for yourself as a second car - hence the robotaxi.

So no, your hypothetical Model 2 would not be cheaper if you didn't compromise it in some major way, which they dont wanna do.

Upwards differentiation is also hard for Tesla - base models are already powerful enough, have all the smart features, they wont compromise on autonomous stuff etc.

This is not only my opinion but the market's - S and X sold like 2 orders of magnitude less cars than the 3 and Y.