Sasha Lekach Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat. Sign Me Up By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Automobile Magazine praised Tesla's aesthetic: "the studied simplicity of both interior and exterior will let this car age extremely well, that in 10 years it will still look contemporary and beautifully understated, not old and irrelevant." With that distinctive design, you could argue that Tesla decided it didn't need a badge to mark it as the Model 3. The design itself does that, Brauer suggested. But there's a less glamorous/more practical side of this, too: "a minimalist design happens to save you a lot of money," Brauer said. With fewer badges, chrome, and additional fixtures, it's easier to scale and produce a lot of the cars, as quickly and as efficiently as possible. As Brauer pointed out, the past year for Tesla has been about learning about mass production. Musk slowly whittled down variations in the manufacturing process, whether it was paint colors, trims, or battery configurations. "The simpler you make a car ... the cheaper it is to produce," Brauer said. It's nothing major, but all those M, O, D, E, L, and 3 badges on thousands of cars add up. TrueCar chief industry analyst Eric Lyman agrees. "Their design is minimalist strategically so it can be more affordable," he said in a phone call this week. Lyman also shared a piece of automotive lore about car maker Acura. In its early days in the late '80s and early 90s, the cars had names like the Integra and Legend. But eventually the company switched over to alpha-numeric names, like the MDX. Why the change? It's believed that the vehicle names were pushing ahead of the brand, with people more familiar with the models instead of the brand, which was still young and being established. Lyman sees a similar logic with the Model 3: Tesla wants people to say they drive a Tesla instead of a particular model. It's easy to forget, but Tesla is still a startup brand. Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable