Tesla Model 3 HUD — Huge Demand, Even If It Won’t Arrive (Poll Results)

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In late March, we got seemingly definitive word from Tesla CEO Elon Musk that the Tesla Model 3 would not have a HUD (heads-up display). Since the unveiling event over a year ago (or even before it), there was a great deal of speculation that the 3 would include a HUD.

Given how common this speculation/expectation was, it seems odd that Elon took so long to state that the 3 would not have a HUD. Possibilities include: 1) Tesla was planning to include a HUD but the plans fell through, 2) Elon wasn’t really aware of how strong and broad the expectation was, 3) for some reason, Elon didn’t think it made sense to clearly knock down the idea earlier.

Anyway, when we got the somewhat stunning news (via Twitter, of course), we were curious how Tesla Model 3 reservation holders and other CleanTechnica readers would respond. The results from some of you (1,705 respondents) are in.

  • A stunning 22% of respondents indicated that a HUD is critical and they won’t buy the Tesla Model 3 if it doesn’t have one.
  • The largest block — 43% — said that it would be awesome to have a HUD, but they’ll survive without one.
  • Another 18% said a HUD would be pretty cool, but that they weren’t obsessed with the idea.
  • Choosing the neutral yet fun option, 9% of respondents said they were “meh” about having a HUD in the Model 3 or not.
  • The remaining 8% were negative about the possibility.

We’ll see how things look once we all can test drive the production version of the Model 3, but suffice it to say, if those results are anywhere close to a generalizable fit for the population of reservation holders as a whole, that’s a hit for Tesla. I have to wonder how things would have looked if there wasn’t overwhelming speculation that the Model 3 would have a HUD*.

I’m guessing that many of the people who responded that they won’t buy the Model 3 if it doesn’t have a HUD will change their mind. I think the navigation & controls setup we’ve seen previewed probably works a lot better than we think it would. But we’ll see, and in either case, this has turned out to be a big disappointment for many Model 3 reservation holders.

Unfortunately, a HUD is one feature we didn’t ask about when surveying EV drivers for our new 93-page EV report. “Which features would you love to have in an EV, and could make you select one model over another?” resulted in the following responses:

I wonder where “HUD” would have fallen in that chart.

*Given the fact that the more obsessed fans were probably the ones reading speculation that the 3 would have a HUD, and that they would also be more likely to see our survey and respond to it, I’m thinking the results are not hugely representative of the population of reservation holders as a whole. But we’ll see.


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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