Why you should reserve the Tesla Model 3!

A few hours ago, Tesla unveiled its mass-produced Tesla Model 3 and it looks like the car industry is having its very own iPhone moment. In the first 24 hours, 115,000 cars have already been reserved (as of now, 3.5 hours later it’s 134k). Besides all the euphoria and marketing heat, there are 4 good reasons why you should reserve this car now. 3 of these reasons don’t have much to do with the car itself. And it’s these 3 reasons that make it so important.

(Reading time: 4 minutes)

One day after its 100th birthday, BMW lost me. To Tesla. Predictable, I know. After all, if you want to be a real embarrassing internet hipster these days, you have to have one of these. The car polarizes. No question about it.

You can now lose yourself in details about electromobility, supercar acceleration, the oil industry and much more that surrounds Tesla. But the discussion is about far more than these banalities. It is about nothing other than the transformation of our energy supply. Angela Merkel says the energy transition.

Tesla is a strange company

These are Tesla’s intentions, or more precisely, these are the intentions of Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla. His approach to doing this is exemplary of how big changes should be approached. Instead of theorizing for a long time and striving for the best of the perfect solution, you should simply start. Step by step. On a strategically sound basis.

If you haven’t read anything about Elon Musk and don’t know his story, you probably think that this man is a shrewd businessman who does the things he does to fill his coffers. That’s not really the case. Not that his activities don’t fill his coffers, but his motivation is to change the world. I believe him because he has almost negligently risked his coffers more than once. It’s probably more luck than sense that this has gone well so far.

We can be glad that such people exist. Where would we end up if all successful business people behaved like Josef Ackermann? It is precisely these exponents who have done so much damage to our Western society over the last 30 years. And I say this to you as a representative of the business world.

Long story short. Here are the 4 reasons why you should reserve a Tesla now, i.e. today or in the next few days.

1st Best Car Ever

The Model S is quite simply the best car I’ve ever driven. And I’ve really driven a lot of cars. Cheap, expensive, slow, fast. It is simply incomparable. Conceptually based on software, it changes everything that has ever been created around the car. Remote maintenance and support, an app for the car.

I could get lost in the details. And I’m a fanboy and am accordingly biased. You don’t have to take my word for it. Just take a test drive and you’ll know what I mean. You won’t want to drive a combustion engine again. Until now, it was a question of finances. With the introduction of the Model 3, which sells for around US$35,000, that’s changing. This is what the car looks like:

 

2. energy transition

The whole discussion about the future energy supply is highly fragmented and polarized. There is a lot of talk and many people don’t really have a clue. The entire energy sector is heavily influenced by lobbying from all sides. Just how sly and highly indecent this can sometimes be became apparent last month in Switzerland. In addition, and this makes it really difficult, the discussion is also politically charged. So it’s a minefield.

The problem of electricity supply is basically quite banal. At the moment, energy that is produced has to be consumed more or less simultaneously. The best and most inexhaustible source of energy, the sun, is considerably limited precisely when we consume electricity, namely at night and in the winter months. Even if we acquire photovoltaic systems, we still have to obtain electricity from the grid at night.

This is exactly where Tesla comes in by offering a battery for the home rather quietly. With these simple and inexpensive units, it is possible to produce electricity during the day and store it for the night. Depending on the single-family home, 1-3 such units are sufficient. At the moment, such a battery costs around US$ 3,500. As the discarded car batteries can be used for even longer with little effort in the home batteries, a fully integrated ecosystem is created in which the expensive technology can be better utilized. This is not only more environmentally friendly, but also much more economical.

This will enable us to change our entire energy supply concept. We can switch to a fundamentally decentralized supply in the private sector. To households that function for the most part without an external power supply. This works completely in regions with lots of sunshine. In others, e.g. in Switzerland, with restrictions in the winter months.

However, this seasonal shift can be solved using other methods. For example, temporary storage using reservoirs. Or simply burning coal for a few months. In these discussions about what makes sense, perfection is the enemy of implementation. There is always someone who finds something somewhere that is not perfect and therefore demonizes the whole concept. Especially in Switzerland and Germany.

This fails to recognize that even with an initial gradual decentralization, CO2 emissions will be significantly reduced. And at the moment, we can use every reduction.

So if you have ever been in favor of nature conservation in any way, you should support Tesla in these efforts. Don’t think that Tesla is going to take over the energy supply. I see this company more as a pioneer, as a prototype creator, to show society and thus the economy that these changes are really feasible. Against all doubters.

Tesla’s cars are the materialized proof of this idea and, ironically, are also wonderfully free of ideology. I grew up in an ecologically socialized environment. I’m all too familiar with this do-nothing-counts mentality. There are plenty of Greens who confuse class warfare with nature conservation. And middle-class people who equate the prevention of this with economic friendliness.

Who would have thought that the high-earning former Porsche, BMW and Mercedes drivers of the luxury class would be the ones to drive electric mobility forward?

3. three-phase plan

In order to develop an electric car suitable for the masses, Tesla had to proceed in 3 steps, although I think this is more of a virtue made of necessity. The first step was the basic development and creation of an initial product. The result was the Tesla Roadster. Very expensive, very technical. The second step was the Model S, an upper-class model. The outstanding driving characteristics of electric drives and the high price level of this vehicle class made it possible to develop a model with which Tesla could also somehow reach at least the gray area of profitability. And thus made the development of the Model 3 possible in the first place.

Tesla’s ability to build not just an electric car, but also high-quality cars in many areas, has led to its breakthrough in the luxury segment, at least in the USA. If you also compare the price/performance ratio, you have to say that the Model S is quite affordable in comparison.

The Model 3 launched yesterday is now the third step. A car for everyone. By reserving a Tesla now, you can help to ensure that this plan works and that electromobility makes significant progress. The traditional manufacturers are already under pressure to catch up. And a few manufacturers have already launched good products. E.g. Renault with the Zoe.

Don’t worry too much about whether the environmental balance is worse or better, because it’s not that relevant. What is relevant is that we as a society and economy are taking steps towards restructuring our energy supply. At the moment, the bottom line is that there are still just as many emissions as when you drive a combustion engine. In Germany and Switzerland, the balance is already better thanks to German night-time wind power.

However, the decisive factor is that as soon as more and more electricity is produced sustainably, the emissions balance of electric cars will suddenly improve. That’s where we have to go.

4. socio-economic impact

The automotive industry is currently experiencing its very own moment of terror. Even if they probably won’t admit it. It is simply incomprehensible why an entire industry has been able to invest billions for decades in a technology that clearly has extreme disadvantages. If these companies don’t follow suit quickly, and no, they won’t look good doing it, it will be critical for them. Not because they don’t have environmentally friendly cars, but because they will have the more expensive and worse cars. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all of them, but it does apply to a few well-known names.

We can only hope that this example will be a wake-up call for other sectors and that the dinosaur industries will once again dare to actually process new technology into products instead of turning study after study after study into lukewarm marketing films.

However, it is just as incomprehensible that politicians have been conducting this perfidious mix of war and alliance with the oil-producing countries for so long. One wonders how such a thing could happen. All these years, all the tragedies, all the wars. From oil and from the conflicts that oil has brought about. It simply has to stop.

I realize that this is a huge oversimplification and no, I’m not saying that buying a Tesla would solve these problems. I’m not naive. It would be too nice if it were that simple.

But it is a first step in this direction. Something you can do in concrete terms.

Watch the presentation of the Model 3 here.

Reserve your Model 3 here.

 

In view of such a massive product recommendation, I feel compelled to clarify what should actually be self-evident: I am not favored by Tesla or any other manufacturer in any way whatsoever.