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So pretty much every major automaker is saying that in the next 5 - 10 years they will either be fully electric or significantly so. I don't see that ending wel

So pretty much every major automaker is saying that in the next 5 - 10 years they will either be fully electric or significantly so. I don't see that ending well for Tesla or at least for their business line of making cars. Full credit to them for showing what an electric car can be (i.e., something more than a golf cart), but they also have awakened the mainstream automaker giants, who can completely dominate them in dealerships, manufacturing capacity, and worldwide presence.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
wil421 9y ago
I think Tesla is the only one going with a fully electric lineup. The others are complementing ICE models with a fully electric option. Which I think is the best move. I really hated the first Hybrids and electrics from the incumbent automakers. They always looked so different. Always felt if they look the same as the current lineup people would buy more, it happened already with hybrid options.
- briffle 9y ago
  By making the cars different, they can make them better fitted for electric cars. IE, Teslas put their batteries in the bottom frame. Will VW put them in the trunk and engine bay? how will that change the driving characteristics with the weight changes from the gas model. Will all wheel wells become larger, to handle electric motors for some of the options?
  - wil421 9y ago
    The German car companies are usually great at weight distribution, BMWs are almost all 50/50. Mercedes are pretty close to that, not familiar with VW models. I'd worry more about the battery capacity than where to put it. I'd argue it's a harder engineering challenge to distribute weight in an ICE than an EV.
  - joshvm 9y ago
    A big problem with ICEs is that you need a large and heavy component (the engine) somewhere practical and accessible. In most consumer vehicles you can't put it anywhere but the front or the rear because the passengers get in the way. Making the car aerodynamic helps here, because you end up with dead space in the hood/trunk which you can put stuff in. Of course Tesla uses this for luggage. Putting the batteries underneath is a natural solution, giving you a nice low centre of gravity. Virtually all the stuff in the engine bay is unnecessary on an EV. If you have a motor for each wheel, you can distribute weight very evenly. There are also advantages for cooling, possibly. A long, thin, cuboid gives you more surface area than a squat cuboid.
mentos 9y ago
Would this be an example of "Pioneers get slaughtered, and the settlers prosper." ?
joshvm 9y ago
Tesla was conceived, according to Musk, to kickstart the industry. https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you And that's what it's done. Interesting that in three years, the landscape has changed a lot. > At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales. (2014)

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

wil421 9y ago

I think Tesla is the only one going with a fully electric lineup. The others are complementing ICE models with a fully electric option. Which I think is the best move. I really hated the first Hybrids and electrics from the incumbent automakers. They always looked so different. Always felt if they look the same as the current lineup people would buy more, it happened already with hybrid options.

briffle 9y ago
By making the cars different, they can make them better fitted for electric cars. IE, Teslas put their batteries in the bottom frame. Will VW put them in the trunk and engine bay? how will that change the driving characteristics with the weight changes from the gas model. Will all wheel wells become larger, to handle electric motors for some of the options?
- wil421 9y ago
  The German car companies are usually great at weight distribution, BMWs are almost all 50/50. Mercedes are pretty close to that, not familiar with VW models. I'd worry more about the battery capacity than where to put it. I'd argue it's a harder engineering challenge to distribute weight in an ICE than an EV.
- joshvm 9y ago
  A big problem with ICEs is that you need a large and heavy component (the engine) somewhere practical and accessible. In most consumer vehicles you can't put it anywhere but the front or the rear because the passengers get in the way. Making the car aerodynamic helps here, because you end up with dead space in the hood/trunk which you can put stuff in. Of course Tesla uses this for luggage. Putting the batteries underneath is a natural solution, giving you a nice low centre of gravity. Virtually all the stuff in the engine bay is unnecessary on an EV. If you have a motor for each wheel, you can distribute weight very evenly. There are also advantages for cooling, possibly. A long, thin, cuboid gives you more surface area than a squat cuboid.

mentos 9y ago

Would this be an example of "Pioneers get slaughtered, and the settlers prosper." ?

joshvm 9y ago

Tesla was conceived, according to Musk, to kickstart the industry. https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you https://www.tesla.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you And that's what it's done. Interesting that in three years, the landscape has changed a lot. > At Tesla, however, we felt compelled to create patents out of concern that the big car companies would copy our technology and then use their massive manufacturing, sales and marketing power to overwhelm Tesla. We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales. (2014)