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These seem like normal growing pains for a new car company. It’s a brutal learning curve! They just have to make it through this curve before running out of mo

These seem like normal growing pains for a new car company. It’s a brutal learning curve! They just have to make it through this curve before running out of money and positive brand association.

steveBK123 4y ago
100% - I want Lucid & Rivian to succeed, I just don't want to spend 80-150K to be their beta tester. People vastly under estimate how hard scaling is. Tesla was producing ~5-10K cars for many years before they hit the 100K level with the Model 3. It could be 5 years for Lucid & Rivian to become regularly available, serviceable car brands like Tesla just started to become in say 2019 or so. I personally don't think anyone should be taking on a loan / spending any large % of their income buying from them and planning for them to be your primary vehicle. They are sufficiently low volume & high risk to remain rich man toys for a while! Even when I bought in 2018 it felt a bit unsteady, with plenty of valid rumors they were going to fold.. including Musk later saying they were days away from bankruptcy during the Model 3 ramp up!
- throwaway894345 4y ago
  In fairness, Tesla had to solve all of the hard problems from scratch. They paved the way for other EV manufacturers, so those other manufacturers should have an easier time.
  - steveBK123 4y ago
    The crazy thing is that Lucid & Rivian were only founded a few years after Tesla.. So while in theory it should be easier now, I don’t think it has been in practice
beambot 4y ago
Exactly. It's played out at virtually every EV manufacturer, regardless of their experience. General Motors, for example: GM advising some Bolt EV owners to park 50 feet away from other cars in case of fire https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/gm-advising-some-bolt-ev-owners-to-park-50-feet-away-from-other-cars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/gm-advising-some-bolt-ev-own... People love to dig on Tesla, but they're through the gauntlet & emerging out the other side -- easily a multi-year headstart. Everyone else still has a lot of pain to endure...
- chipsa 4y ago
  The Bolt recall isn't a GM issue, it's a LG battery issue. Which... GM isn't the only company using LG batteries. The Hyundai Kona, for example, got hit with a similar recall. Ditto the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. Ditto some home batteries. I'd be unsurprised if Ford has to do one for the Mach-E.
  - beambot 4y ago
    Many components of the traditional automakers' vehicles are outsourced to common suppliers. That doesn't give them a free pass when the vehicle doesn't perform as desired -- it's a product defect regardless of which supplier owns the root cause.
  - anarticle 4y ago
    That becomes their problem when the headline reads “Bolt Burns Down Home and Dog”

These seem like normal growing pains for a new car company. It’s a brutal learning curve! They just have to make it through this curve before running out of money and positive brand association.

steveBK123 4y ago

100% - I want Lucid & Rivian to succeed, I just don't want to spend 80-150K to be their beta tester. People vastly under estimate how hard scaling is. Tesla was producing ~5-10K cars for many years before they hit the 100K level with the Model 3. It could be 5 years for Lucid & Rivian to become regularly available, serviceable car brands like Tesla just started to become in say 2019 or so. I personally don't think anyone should be taking on a loan / spending any large % of their income buying from them and planning for them to be your primary vehicle. They are sufficiently low volume & high risk to remain rich man toys for a while! Even when I bought in 2018 it felt a bit unsteady, with plenty of valid rumors they were going to fold.. including Musk later saying they were days away from bankruptcy during the Model 3 ramp up!

throwaway894345 4y ago
In fairness, Tesla had to solve all of the hard problems from scratch. They paved the way for other EV manufacturers, so those other manufacturers should have an easier time.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  The crazy thing is that Lucid & Rivian were only founded a few years after Tesla.. So while in theory it should be easier now, I don’t think it has been in practice

beambot 4y ago

Exactly. It's played out at virtually every EV manufacturer, regardless of their experience. General Motors, for example: GM advising some Bolt EV owners to park 50 feet away from other cars in case of fire https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/gm-advising-some-bolt-ev-owners-to-park-50-feet-away-from-other-cars.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/gm-advising-some-bolt-ev-own... People love to dig on Tesla, but they're through the gauntlet & emerging out the other side -- easily a multi-year headstart. Everyone else still has a lot of pain to endure...

chipsa 4y ago
The Bolt recall isn't a GM issue, it's a LG battery issue. Which... GM isn't the only company using LG batteries. The Hyundai Kona, for example, got hit with a similar recall. Ditto the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. Ditto some home batteries. I'd be unsurprised if Ford has to do one for the Mach-E.
- beambot 4y ago
  Many components of the traditional automakers' vehicles are outsourced to common suppliers. That doesn't give them a free pass when the vehicle doesn't perform as desired -- it's a product defect regardless of which supplier owns the root cause.
- anarticle 4y ago
  That becomes their problem when the headline reads “Bolt Burns Down Home and Dog”