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Tesla is not proof of that. Tesla is an EV company from the ground up. They also do not have the capacity to produce vehicles at the rate of companies like BMW,

Tesla is not proof of that. Tesla is an EV company from the ground up. They also do not have the capacity to produce vehicles at the rate of companies like BMW, Mercedes, Honda, etc. Moreover, car companies do not have "infinite cash reserves". Retooling factories for EV production is an expensive undertaking. Combined with the expense of lithium cells and supply issues, it's not a simple or cheap task.

adrianN 9y ago
VW's profit in 2017 has been more than ten billion Euros. That kind of money could fund a lot R&D and retooling factories.
- Barrin92 9y ago
  It does fund a lot of research. Volkswagens investment into electrical cars exceeds Tesla by a factor of five. The article suggests that manufacturing at large scale is not yet profitable, not that they're not actively working on R&D.
vvanders 9y ago
> They also do not have the capacity to produce vehicles at the rate of companies like BMW, Mercedes, Honda, etc. I don't buy that for a second, esp given that they are now out-selling the S Class[1]. [1] https://electrek.co/2017/05/26/tesls-model-s-leading-us-large-luxury-segment/ https://electrek.co/2017/05/26/tesls-model-s-leading-us-larg...
- sxates 9y ago
  To be fair - the S Class is a relatively low volume car. I don't have exact figures, but I'd expect it to be in the range of 2-3% of the cars Mercedes manufactures. BMW made nearly 2,000,000 cars in 2015[1], and this year, best case, Tesla will make 150,000. That's an order of magnitude difference in scale. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW#Production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW#Production
  - vvanders 9y ago
    Yes, but in the context of a single production line that I feel like that reasoning doesn't stand. Yes Telsa doesn't make as much in volume, but we're already only talking about cars in the EV segment.
- ptaipale 9y ago
  The S class is a prestige product for Mercedes, its volumes are minuscule compared to other models. Tesla made about 100 000 cars in 2017. Mercedes produced almost 2.4 million.
sweden 9y ago
Tesla had to raise a lot of money from investors to keep the business afloat. In 2017 alone, they had to raise a debt of $2bn to keep their cash reserves alive so that they could continue investing on their products. Volkswagen, on the other hand, had a revenue of $230bn in 2017 alone. It doesn't seem to me that money is a problem for the already established car manufacturers. And looking at Tesla's finances, starting an electric car business wouldn't make much of a dent on Volkswagen's finances. So yes, Tesla is proof that there is some relutance in moving to a fully electric business in the car industry.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

adrianN 9y ago

VW's profit in 2017 has been more than ten billion Euros. That kind of money could fund a lot R&D and retooling factories.

Barrin92 9y ago
It does fund a lot of research. Volkswagens investment into electrical cars exceeds Tesla by a factor of five. The article suggests that manufacturing at large scale is not yet profitable, not that they're not actively working on R&D.

vvanders 9y ago

> They also do not have the capacity to produce vehicles at the rate of companies like BMW, Mercedes, Honda, etc. I don't buy that for a second, esp given that they are now out-selling the S Class[1]. [1] https://electrek.co/2017/05/26/tesls-model-s-leading-us-large-luxury-segment/ https://electrek.co/2017/05/26/tesls-model-s-leading-us-larg...

sxates 9y ago
To be fair - the S Class is a relatively low volume car. I don't have exact figures, but I'd expect it to be in the range of 2-3% of the cars Mercedes manufactures. BMW made nearly 2,000,000 cars in 2015[1], and this year, best case, Tesla will make 150,000. That's an order of magnitude difference in scale. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW#Production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW#Production
- vvanders 9y ago
  Yes, but in the context of a single production line that I feel like that reasoning doesn't stand. Yes Telsa doesn't make as much in volume, but we're already only talking about cars in the EV segment.
ptaipale 9y ago
The S class is a prestige product for Mercedes, its volumes are minuscule compared to other models. Tesla made about 100 000 cars in 2017. Mercedes produced almost 2.4 million.

sweden 9y ago

Tesla had to raise a lot of money from investors to keep the business afloat. In 2017 alone, they had to raise a debt of $2bn to keep their cash reserves alive so that they could continue investing on their products. Volkswagen, on the other hand, had a revenue of $230bn in 2017 alone. It doesn't seem to me that money is a problem for the already established car manufacturers. And looking at Tesla's finances, starting an electric car business wouldn't make much of a dent on Volkswagen's finances. So yes, Tesla is proof that there is some relutance in moving to a fully electric business in the car industry.

deleted 9y ago
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