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Dealers and customers don't know what they want. What's the old adage? If you asked customers what they wanted they'd have gotten a six legged horse instead o

Dealers and customers don't know what they want. What's the old adage? If you asked customers what they wanted they'd have gotten a six legged horse instead of the automobile?

bgirard 3y ago
Right. Someone should have told Tesla that buyers wanted Hybrids over EVs.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  I think part of the reason that GM is having a hard time finding buyers is that Tesla has successfully scooped up a lot of the early adopters. They were the first to scale their production, and then as other manufacturers got their factories online, Tesla cut prices aggressively to grab the next set of early-ish adopters. This has put the other manufacturers in a quandary: they can't achieve economies of scale because they're not selling many vehicles, and they can't sell more vehicles at their current prices because they're losing so much on each one. For example, Ford dramatically increased the price of their F150 EV, and then cut manufacturing capacity. On a separate note, I bet if Tesla had made hybrids, they would have done a good job at that also. It is interesting to imagine a world in which Tesla was exactly the same (direct sales model), but was selling hybrids instead of pure EVs.
  - bgirard 3y ago
    Hard to know if you're overfitting your explanation in the same way the majority of people though that Tesla was wrong before they created a huge market demand for good EVs. Personally I'm not a Tesla fan and I'm holding out for a car manufacturer to make an EV I trust with a good reputation, low cost of ownership and good quality. Until then I'll stick with my non-hybrid Civic.
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      Not sure it's overfitting if this what exactly what I hypothesized would happen when Tesla started cutting prices aggressively. I'm sure I wasn't the only person to see this as their strategy. Enjoy the Civic — I bought one new when they were revamped in 2006. Loved that thing (and the 40 MPG highway that it delivered, even back then)!
    - happytiger 3y ago
      Add repairability to that excellent list. I have too many friends with a story about waiting months for Tesla service. Even the ones that rave about how good they are in every other way admit that if something big goes wrong, it’s going to take too long. And the people I’m thinking of LOVE their Teslas. Low cost repairs and easy parts availability for third party repairs is a deal killer for Tesla. They need to be more focused on it. I had to replace parts on my Toyota recently. Walked into the dealership unannounced, chatted with the parts people, and they ordered my parts. They also told me about some fasteners I would need and made sure I understood how to fix it. Three days later the parts arrived, with fasteners, and it was done. I really think Tesla is missing the mark on parts and repeatability.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

Dealers and customers don't know what they want. What's the old adage? If you asked customers what they wanted they'd have gotten a six legged horse instead of the automobile?

bgirard 3y ago

Right. Someone should have told Tesla that buyers wanted Hybrids over EVs.

gnicholas 3y ago
I think part of the reason that GM is having a hard time finding buyers is that Tesla has successfully scooped up a lot of the early adopters. They were the first to scale their production, and then as other manufacturers got their factories online, Tesla cut prices aggressively to grab the next set of early-ish adopters. This has put the other manufacturers in a quandary: they can't achieve economies of scale because they're not selling many vehicles, and they can't sell more vehicles at their current prices because they're losing so much on each one. For example, Ford dramatically increased the price of their F150 EV, and then cut manufacturing capacity. On a separate note, I bet if Tesla had made hybrids, they would have done a good job at that also. It is interesting to imagine a world in which Tesla was exactly the same (direct sales model), but was selling hybrids instead of pure EVs.
- bgirard 3y ago
  Hard to know if you're overfitting your explanation in the same way the majority of people though that Tesla was wrong before they created a huge market demand for good EVs. Personally I'm not a Tesla fan and I'm holding out for a car manufacturer to make an EV I trust with a good reputation, low cost of ownership and good quality. Until then I'll stick with my non-hybrid Civic.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    Not sure it's overfitting if this what exactly what I hypothesized would happen when Tesla started cutting prices aggressively. I'm sure I wasn't the only person to see this as their strategy. Enjoy the Civic — I bought one new when they were revamped in 2006. Loved that thing (and the 40 MPG highway that it delivered, even back then)!
  - happytiger 3y ago
    Add repairability to that excellent list. I have too many friends with a story about waiting months for Tesla service. Even the ones that rave about how good they are in every other way admit that if something big goes wrong, it’s going to take too long. And the people I’m thinking of LOVE their Teslas. Low cost repairs and easy parts availability for third party repairs is a deal killer for Tesla. They need to be more focused on it. I had to replace parts on my Toyota recently. Walked into the dealership unannounced, chatted with the parts people, and they ordered my parts. They also told me about some fasteners I would need and made sure I understood how to fix it. Three days later the parts arrived, with fasteners, and it was done. I really think Tesla is missing the mark on parts and repeatability.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]