4 ms·

I'd love to own a Bentley, and I think an electric version has the potential to make them much more competitive, reliability-wise. (The ghost of Lucas electric

I'd love to own a Bentley, and I think an electric version has the potential to make them much more competitive, reliability-wise. (The ghost of Lucas electrics threatens to haunt, though.) I think Tesla has too much headstart, though. Bentley (and most others) simply won't be able to catch up.

ineedasername 6y ago
Bentley is in a whole other tier of luxury, they're not really a direct competitor. The first company that puts out an EV with ~250 range for about the price of a Civic will be the one to really take the mass market. That could be Tesla, but even if they hit their 3-year deadline, their history shows they're unlikely to be able to keep up with demand. If another larger company with more capacity gets to market even a year later, they could still take the crown on the first real mass-market affordable EV.
- rdtwo 6y ago
  With the price of gas being so low and most Americans driving suvs the appeal of electric isn’t great. I really like smaller cars but I feel like they aren’t very safe When every other idiot drives a car with twice the mass
  - grecy 6y ago
    Only ~5% of the world's population live in the USA... so a vehicle doesn't have to be successful in the USA to be an enormous success - financially and environmentally
    - throwaway201103 6y ago
      What percentage of the world's car-owning population lives in the USA? I own 6 cars, myself.
      - ineedasername 6y ago
        For the purpose of this discussion where we're really talking about purchasing a car, it may be more useful to look at annual car purchases rather than estimates of world-wide car ownership. Roughly 80 million cars are sold each year [0] Roughly 18 million cars are sold in the US each year [1] So the US encompasses about 22.5% of annual car sales. That seems significant enough to consider the US in this context as a major factor for the impact US adoption of EV's would have in the market. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/global-car-sales-expected-to-slide-by-3point1-million-this-year-in-biggest-drop-since-recession.html#:~:text=Global%20passenger%20car%20sales%20fell,77.5%20million%20new%20vehicle%20sales https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/global-car-sales-expected-to....] [1]
tiew9Vii 6y ago
> I think Tesla has too much headstart, though. Bentley (and most others) simply won't be able to catch up. Everyone says Tesla has a head start. They have a head start on batteries and the motors. Other manufacturers have a head start on building cars and other aspects of what makes a car a car. A Bentley or Rolls Royce is a different class of car to a Tesla. Tesla may be able to make a battery / motor fit for a Bentley or Rolls Royce but can Tesla make a car you can call a Bentley or Rolls Royce? Likewise if you take something like a Porche 911. Tesla might be able to make an electric power train fit for a 911 but can Tesla make a car you can call a 911 with it's handling? There's lots of different markets and no single manufacturer can corner them all. With governments starting to make all new vehicles from 2030+ electric other car manufacturers have no choice but to catch up so will be investing heavily. I think Tesla will grow and will certainly have a spot in the market. At some point they'll be a crossing point where other manufacturers have Tesla's tech and it'll be interesting how Tesla distinguishes itself. The next 5-10 years look interesting.
- codeulike 6y ago
  Tesla are the only car manufacturer that really understand how to do software. It will take a long time for the others to adjust. VW recognise that they need to do a huge amount of work in this area. See https://thenextweb.com/cars/2020/01/17/vw-must-become-tech-company-compete-with-tesla/ https://thenextweb.com/cars/2020/01/17/vw-must-become-tech-c...

ineedasername 6y ago

Bentley is in a whole other tier of luxury, they're not really a direct competitor. The first company that puts out an EV with ~250 range for about the price of a Civic will be the one to really take the mass market. That could be Tesla, but even if they hit their 3-year deadline, their history shows they're unlikely to be able to keep up with demand. If another larger company with more capacity gets to market even a year later, they could still take the crown on the first real mass-market affordable EV.

rdtwo 6y ago
With the price of gas being so low and most Americans driving suvs the appeal of electric isn’t great. I really like smaller cars but I feel like they aren’t very safe When every other idiot drives a car with twice the mass
- grecy 6y ago
  Only ~5% of the world's population live in the USA... so a vehicle doesn't have to be successful in the USA to be an enormous success - financially and environmentally
  - throwaway201103 6y ago
    What percentage of the world's car-owning population lives in the USA? I own 6 cars, myself.
    - ineedasername 6y ago
      For the purpose of this discussion where we're really talking about purchasing a car, it may be more useful to look at annual car purchases rather than estimates of world-wide car ownership. Roughly 80 million cars are sold each year [0] Roughly 18 million cars are sold in the US each year [1] So the US encompasses about 22.5% of annual car sales. That seems significant enough to consider the US in this context as a major factor for the impact US adoption of EV's would have in the market. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/global-car-sales-expected-to-slide-by-3point1-million-this-year-in-biggest-drop-since-recession.html#:~:text=Global%20passenger%20car%20sales%20fell,77.5%20million%20new%20vehicle%20sales https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/global-car-sales-expected-to....] [1]

tiew9Vii 6y ago

> I think Tesla has too much headstart, though. Bentley (and most others) simply won't be able to catch up. Everyone says Tesla has a head start. They have a head start on batteries and the motors. Other manufacturers have a head start on building cars and other aspects of what makes a car a car. A Bentley or Rolls Royce is a different class of car to a Tesla. Tesla may be able to make a battery / motor fit for a Bentley or Rolls Royce but can Tesla make a car you can call a Bentley or Rolls Royce? Likewise if you take something like a Porche 911. Tesla might be able to make an electric power train fit for a 911 but can Tesla make a car you can call a 911 with it's handling? There's lots of different markets and no single manufacturer can corner them all. With governments starting to make all new vehicles from 2030+ electric other car manufacturers have no choice but to catch up so will be investing heavily. I think Tesla will grow and will certainly have a spot in the market. At some point they'll be a crossing point where other manufacturers have Tesla's tech and it'll be interesting how Tesla distinguishes itself. The next 5-10 years look interesting.

codeulike 6y ago
Tesla are the only car manufacturer that really understand how to do software. It will take a long time for the others to adjust. VW recognise that they need to do a huge amount of work in this area. See https://thenextweb.com/cars/2020/01/17/vw-must-become-tech-company-compete-with-tesla/ https://thenextweb.com/cars/2020/01/17/vw-must-become-tech-c...