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> Problem is, anyone can have what Walmart sells. 5,000 massive scale physical retail buildings (at a time when other physical retail is being mauled), a brand

> Problem is, anyone can have what Walmart sells. 5,000 massive scale physical retail buildings (at a time when other physical retail is being mauled), a brand with buyer loyalty that took half a century to create, operating on a 3% profit margin in a hyper low margin business, and excellent real-estate locations across most of the US. Be sure to wave to Kmart, Penneys, FW Woolworth, JG McCrory's and Sears on the way to having what Walmart has. No, you can't have what Walmart has. Nobody can afford to replicate what Walmart has built up over time. And if you try to compete with them via ecommerce instead of physical retail (thinking that will somehow be cheaper), you'll need to spend tens of billions of dollars on distribution to do it (and good luck competing with Amazon). If you had to choose who to compete with, Walmart & Amazon or Tesla, that's a comically easy choice. That's why companies like Nikola or Rivian exist (and 37 Chinese Tesla clones), and absolutely nobody is eager to build a thousand new giant physical retail stores to go after Walmart (besides, you can't get the money to do it, there are no funding sources for that financially suicidal move).

gleenn 6y ago
I understand your point for the most part, but the argument isn't that you have to build exactly what Walmart has (hundreds of buildings with mass distribution). Any Joe can setup a grocery/goods store tomorrow. Will they crush Walmart any time soon? Nope. Good luck trying to build what Tesla has. Call me a fanboy, but there is some amazing technology in those cars, and while strapping a battery on a frame with a electric motor looks easy, doing it at scale and as efficiently as they do is definitely not. Many of those 37 or whatever Chinese knock-offs have failed already. I would never buy a knock-off electric car, but I would definitely shop at Joe's convenience store to pick up some bananas, I do it daily actually.
- 01100011 6y ago
  I'd actually buy a cheap Chinese electric car. I wouldn't consider a Tesla. It lacks the range I need in my primary vehicle and is too expensive for a second commuter car. Tesla's are amazing and good for them but it's not what I need or want. People are valuing Tesla like there will be one in every garage, but I just don't see it happening.
  - Melting_Harps 6y ago
    > I'd actually buy a cheap Chinese electric car. No you wouldn't, just buy a Chinese scooter (sub $1500) and see how much of a headache their electronics are on something you need for transportation. They make EV ones, too, which would probably be the best gauge with its limited range. Its a horrible experience, they honestly have no QA/QC to speak of in their vehicle division(s) they just build and ship them like that in masse, its so wasteful as they will most likely end up in a landfill when problems arise as they're priced at near disposable level. They may have processors and subsequently phone's down, but the amount of errors on an EV would make me want to drive the thing into a wall. As for the Tesla stock price, I think its pretty high given where they are in terms of CURRENT scale. I put a deposit down for a Cybertruck knowing full well its QA-QC won't be sorted until 1-3 years after the release as its an entire new chassis, but those funds help make that happens and even in the interim they're pretty good about repairs/returns provided they can get the parts for them. Its stock price is am indication of just another way to park hot money in the economy, at least its going into something of actual value and helping the environment rather than inflating another commodities bubbles that fomented war and revolution all of the World, as we saw in 2008. It may not be rationale given the constraints of their CURRENT production capacity, but their Manufacturing presence in 3 different continents and their supercharger network alone didn't seemed priced in with its stock at below $500 in my opinion. I told people to buy more during the 'Bankwupt' joke at mid 200s, Elon is a total troll Online/Twitter but I've been in the Auto Industry for quite some time and went to Interview several times at the factory in Fremont and they are not a car company, they seem more like an Electrical/Battery manufacturer that uses cars to sell its core product(s). The guys I met with in the Supply Chain are the real deal, once the constraints of Model 3 lines and ramp up happened what they undertook was nothing short of immense. I hope the guys at the factory are slowly cashing out some of their positions as the Manufacturing guys are not paid very well and this money after the shut down is probably needed.
    - 01100011 6y ago
      The 'Chinese junk' meme is pretty tired at this point. I've bought plenty of stuff from China that worked just fine. An electric car without self-driving or pointless infotainment isn't all that hard to make. It's some basic car components, some motors and a battery, more or less. I've got an EE background and I don't see anything that would keep them from making a cheap car with short range. If it passes safety testing and is approved for sale in the US then I'm all in.
- Element_ 6y ago
  Isn't VW now producing 2 fully electric cars at scale based on their new electric platform? I think the ID3 is shipping to customers in Europe already or in the near future.
  - Tade0 6y ago
    Yes, but while those are somewhat cheaper than the Model 3, they don't match it on range, power and efficiency. Also they are somewhat delayed because someone figured that it would be a good idea to create a lot of new software(a whole new OS?) specifically for this car.

gleenn 6y ago

I understand your point for the most part, but the argument isn't that you have to build exactly what Walmart has (hundreds of buildings with mass distribution). Any Joe can setup a grocery/goods store tomorrow. Will they crush Walmart any time soon? Nope. Good luck trying to build what Tesla has. Call me a fanboy, but there is some amazing technology in those cars, and while strapping a battery on a frame with a electric motor looks easy, doing it at scale and as efficiently as they do is definitely not. Many of those 37 or whatever Chinese knock-offs have failed already. I would never buy a knock-off electric car, but I would definitely shop at Joe's convenience store to pick up some bananas, I do it daily actually.

01100011 6y ago
I'd actually buy a cheap Chinese electric car. I wouldn't consider a Tesla. It lacks the range I need in my primary vehicle and is too expensive for a second commuter car. Tesla's are amazing and good for them but it's not what I need or want. People are valuing Tesla like there will be one in every garage, but I just don't see it happening.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago
  > I'd actually buy a cheap Chinese electric car. No you wouldn't, just buy a Chinese scooter (sub $1500) and see how much of a headache their electronics are on something you need for transportation. They make EV ones, too, which would probably be the best gauge with its limited range. Its a horrible experience, they honestly have no QA/QC to speak of in their vehicle division(s) they just build and ship them like that in masse, its so wasteful as they will most likely end up in a landfill when problems arise as they're priced at near disposable level. They may have processors and subsequently phone's down, but the amount of errors on an EV would make me want to drive the thing into a wall. As for the Tesla stock price, I think its pretty high given where they are in terms of CURRENT scale. I put a deposit down for a Cybertruck knowing full well its QA-QC won't be sorted until 1-3 years after the release as its an entire new chassis, but those funds help make that happens and even in the interim they're pretty good about repairs/returns provided they can get the parts for them. Its stock price is am indication of just another way to park hot money in the economy, at least its going into something of actual value and helping the environment rather than inflating another commodities bubbles that fomented war and revolution all of the World, as we saw in 2008. It may not be rationale given the constraints of their CURRENT production capacity, but their Manufacturing presence in 3 different continents and their supercharger network alone didn't seemed priced in with its stock at below $500 in my opinion. I told people to buy more during the 'Bankwupt' joke at mid 200s, Elon is a total troll Online/Twitter but I've been in the Auto Industry for quite some time and went to Interview several times at the factory in Fremont and they are not a car company, they seem more like an Electrical/Battery manufacturer that uses cars to sell its core product(s). The guys I met with in the Supply Chain are the real deal, once the constraints of Model 3 lines and ramp up happened what they undertook was nothing short of immense. I hope the guys at the factory are slowly cashing out some of their positions as the Manufacturing guys are not paid very well and this money after the shut down is probably needed.
  - 01100011 6y ago
    The 'Chinese junk' meme is pretty tired at this point. I've bought plenty of stuff from China that worked just fine. An electric car without self-driving or pointless infotainment isn't all that hard to make. It's some basic car components, some motors and a battery, more or less. I've got an EE background and I don't see anything that would keep them from making a cheap car with short range. If it passes safety testing and is approved for sale in the US then I'm all in.
Element_ 6y ago
Isn't VW now producing 2 fully electric cars at scale based on their new electric platform? I think the ID3 is shipping to customers in Europe already or in the near future.
- Tade0 6y ago
  Yes, but while those are somewhat cheaper than the Model 3, they don't match it on range, power and efficiency. Also they are somewhat delayed because someone figured that it would be a good idea to create a lot of new software(a whole new OS?) specifically for this car.