3 ms·

i could easily be wrong, but, IMHO the hard challenge to being just another car manufacturer is that car manufacturing is already so competitive and dominated b

i could easily be wrong, but, IMHO the hard challenge to being just another car manufacturer is that car manufacturing is already so competitive and dominated by large, well-funded global players. how can small upstart Tesla compete with that? up until now, the answer has been: by having this unique, kick-ass, smart, rare, high-priced and prestigious electric vehicle. the trouble is that the global majors are catching up and starting to offer their own kick-ass smart EVs. my humble guess is that no small upstart can survive as just another car manufacturer. they need a special advantage, some secret sauce. i fear Tesla won't have that in the future.

milesward 9y ago
Humbly, I have yet to see any of the other players offer a kick-ass EV. Bolt is the closest, and it's pretty far from kick-ass.
- Robotbeat 9y ago
  This. And the only one I've seen that might be a Tesla rival is BMW, but they're not much larger than Tesla and by the time they catch up to Tesla's electric car tech fully (some time in the mid 2020s), Tesla may actually have exceeded BMW's production capacity (2.5 million per year). And it's too bad. Toyota had a good thing going with Prius, but squandered a 2 decade head start by under-investing in pure electric and investing billions in the hydrogen dead-end. And GM has been under-investing in both the Volt and the Bolt, being content to just try to peel off a few other EV-centric customers from Nissan and Tesla instead of actually making a car with the marketing campaign and appeal of a mass market car. Charging networks is another place where the other car makers have been falling on their face. They often talk up charging networks, but it's still not possible to buy a car with something like Supercharger capability (only 50kW is broadly available on the car side, but only 25kW is typical for actual DC fast charge stations in the real world, at least in the US). Meanwhile, Tesla has continued to expand the Supercharger network.
  - maxxxxx 9y ago
    BMW has revenues of 120 billion USD vs Tesla's 12 billion. I think that would qualify as "much larger". And BMW knows how to produce cars profitably.
    - Robotbeat 9y ago
      BMW knows how to produce cars profitably after having a much higher production and a company infrastructure paid for over decades. Tesla will also be profitable when they're producing a couple million cars per year. And, given the streamlined buying process, will likely have higher margins.

milesward 9y ago

Humbly, I have yet to see any of the other players offer a kick-ass EV. Bolt is the closest, and it's pretty far from kick-ass.

Robotbeat 9y ago
This. And the only one I've seen that might be a Tesla rival is BMW, but they're not much larger than Tesla and by the time they catch up to Tesla's electric car tech fully (some time in the mid 2020s), Tesla may actually have exceeded BMW's production capacity (2.5 million per year). And it's too bad. Toyota had a good thing going with Prius, but squandered a 2 decade head start by under-investing in pure electric and investing billions in the hydrogen dead-end. And GM has been under-investing in both the Volt and the Bolt, being content to just try to peel off a few other EV-centric customers from Nissan and Tesla instead of actually making a car with the marketing campaign and appeal of a mass market car. Charging networks is another place where the other car makers have been falling on their face. They often talk up charging networks, but it's still not possible to buy a car with something like Supercharger capability (only 50kW is broadly available on the car side, but only 25kW is typical for actual DC fast charge stations in the real world, at least in the US). Meanwhile, Tesla has continued to expand the Supercharger network.
- maxxxxx 9y ago
  BMW has revenues of 120 billion USD vs Tesla's 12 billion. I think that would qualify as "much larger". And BMW knows how to produce cars profitably.
  - Robotbeat 9y ago
    BMW knows how to produce cars profitably after having a much higher production and a company infrastructure paid for over decades. Tesla will also be profitable when they're producing a couple million cars per year. And, given the streamlined buying process, will likely have higher margins.