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Tesla confirms having produced its 300,000th electric car
- weinzierl 9y agoI know we can't and shouldn't compare Tesla's production to traditional car production, but just to put the numbers into perspective: Toyota produces that many cars every 11 days. VW is about the same. Not electric cars of course, but I don't have numbers for these.
- georgeecollins 9y agoI think the point is that Tesla has the potential to grow its sales much faster than Toyota or VW. Tesla will probably never be a brand like VW or Toyota. If they succeed they are more likely to be like BMW. And to put this into perspective, they have sold as many cars as Rolls-Royce would in 100 years.* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Motor_Cars#Sales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Motor_Cars#Sales
- weinzierl 9y agoGood point, Tesla doesn't need to be the next Toyota to be successful. I still think they have a long way to go to even get into BMW range. 300000 cars takes BMW (including Brilliance) only 39 days. 100% agree what you said about sales, especially because of Tesla's own dealerships which let them avoid entrenched distribution channels. Nice find about Rolls-Royce, by the way.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoCars sit idle 95% of the time, and 17.2 million new cars are sold every year. If self driving comes sooner vs later, do we need 17 million new cars a year? Probably not.
- VVyattPrentice 9y agothe wealthy will likely want the creature comforts a personal vehicle affords.
- olivermarks 9y agoYou can't compare Rolls Royce, a very high end hand built car creator, to Tesla, who aspire to be a mass producer.
- Retric 9y agoToyota use more outsourcing producing a lower % of their cars than Tesla. So, comparing things on a man hour basis might be more meaningful. Toyota is 12x as large though they both do more than just manufacture cars. Still it's probably about the equivalent of 3-4 months worth of Toyota's production capacity. PS: Yea, modern batteries are a horrible pain to manufacture.
- weinzierl 9y agoI wouldn't argue, but I think the hurdles to overcome to pull off a production like Toyota's of VW's are not to underestimate.
- Retric 9y agoI agree that having a lot of parts suppliers is complex, but that's still vastly simpler than manufacturing every single part. The real difference IMO is the variety of vehicles Toyota produces not simp,y scaling up production.
- erikpukinskis 9y agoIt’s a different kind of complexity. I’m not sure what the basis for comparison would be. Degrees of freedom?
- vkou 9y ago> Toyota use more outsourcing producing a lower % of their cars than Tesla. You can't just wave your hands and outsource parts manufacturing. Developing, and maintaining your supply chain is incredibly challenging. Tesla's attempts at doing so resulted in delays, shortages, and them blaming everything on their suppliers - rather then on their failure in being a good partner with them.
- singularity2001 9y agoevery 11 days? The crying Earth, the weeping shores!
- flexie 9y agoYes, but Toyota’s and VW’s cars run on dead dinosaurs - Tesla’s are electric. Who cares how many combustion engines the veteran car manufacturers can peddle? Show me some EVs and I would happily buy VW.
- nik736 9y agoVW has the e-Golf
- robin_reala 9y agoAnd the e-up! http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/up-pa/explore/e-up http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/up-pa/explore/e-up
- flexie 9y agoThe e-up has a range of 99 miles. That might impress VW who says: "One charge, 99 miles. The e-up!’s impressive range makes it perfect for day to day driving." But it's less than half of the standard Tesla Model 3. It's simply not enough. What is that after a couple of years or in cold weather. 80 miles? You will be driving around with constant range anxiety, even if you are just in the city.
- flexie 9y agoThe e-Golf has a range of 125 miles (200 km). The standard model 3 has a range of 220 miles. The upgrade has a range of 310 miles. The model S and Y have even longer ranges. Now, if VW had a charging network, that would be less of an issue, but they also don't have that yet. VW does not have a competitive EV yet.
- sushid 9y agoTesla also happens to run on dead dinosaurs, at least in the US... Arguably less efficient since it has to be converted into electricity first. About 64% of electricity in 2016 was generated using coal or natural gas in the US. [0] https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_in_the_united_states https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electrici...
- MR4D 9y agoBut how many $80,000 cars does Toyota make per year? That’s the more relevant question to ask. And for comparison, Tesla is way, way ahead of Ferrari. In fact, Tesla makes more cars in a quarter than Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Rolls Royce do in a year. Combined !
- rocky1138 9y agoThis article doesn't include numbers for the Roadster.
- mikeash 9y agoThey built about 2,500 Roadsters.
- olivermarks 9y agoThe roadster was a lotus elise based kit car they electrified
- weinzierl 9y agoThe page shows an ad[1] that says: Tesla referral code Use it to buy Tesla's Model S or Model X [1] https://weinzierl.keybase.pub/2018/tesla-referral.png https://weinzierl.keybase.pub/2018/tesla-referral.png
- modeless 9y agoPeople have bought billboards in SF for this: https://www.instagram.com/p/9fu3Adr-0o/ https://www.instagram.com/p/9fu3Adr-0o/
- nathanaldensr 9y agoI like the poor quality English: "Save $1000 off."
- pythonaut_16 9y agoIt will be interesting to see the long-tail on Tesla production and sales. If they can get through their ramp up difficulties on Model 3 and get to making a profit per vehicle sold they might have incredible staying power over the long term, and they'll only get better at production over time. Their strategy of branding their cars primarily as the model (i.e. S, X, 3) vs 2018 Tesla Model S makes them fairly timeless.
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- jedberg 9y agoThis doesn't break out US sales vs foreign, but if we assume 2/3 of the vehicles are sold in the US, that means they just hit their 200,000 car limit for the tax credit, or are just about to. If they are clever they'll try to make car 200,000 roll out just after April 1, to push it into Q2, giving them six months more of the credit. But it definitely means that a lot of Model 3 buyers are gonna get screwed as they push the delivery of the cheap model 3 out to 2019, as those are the people who were most likely counting on the $7,500 when they pre-ordered.
- _ph_ 9y agoTesla just started to ship the Model 3 to Canada - probably to time hitting the 200.000 car limit in the US.
- 4dayworkweek 9y agoI have a feeling that Tesla isn't going to move towards a four day work week :-(