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The sheer volume of electric car startup companies shows that Elon Musk was in the right place at the right time. The reason there are a lot of EV startups is b

by dangus 3y ago

The sheer volume of electric car startup companies shows that Elon Musk was in the right place at the right time. The reason there are a lot of EV startups is because the powertrain is simple. You don’t need an army of engine plants and parts suppliers to build an EV. That is the disruptive part about the EV, which has nothing to do with anything unique to Elon Musk. Also, he didn’t found the company, he was just an investor. Investors are a dime a dozen and mostly aren’t dinguses on social media, he’s the exception.

marcosdumay 3y ago
It's as if everybody just forgot that the world was full of propaganda against electric cars (hey, hydrogen is the future!), regulation was heavily stopping any car startup, and the catch-22 problem of not being able to charge because nobody had electric cars existed. Nobody was making a car startup on that scene. It's been what, a decade and half? It's amazing how people forget.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  A hydrogen pump just got installed in my county last month, actually. > regulation was heavily stopping any car startup, and the catch-22 problem of not being able to charge because nobody had electric cars existed. Now we have electric subsidies and replete charging stations, and we're not really any closer to democratizing the technology. I'll be real - the focus on scaling-up lithium-ion has been detrimental to the electric car industry, and set them back so far that hydrogen ignition might still win the lower-end market. Tesla put their pearls before their swine, and now it feels like they're paying the price.
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    Hydrogen powered cars are so full of problems that they won't happen anywhere. Nowadays electric cars are a visible minority almost everywhere on the planet. People seriously discuss the charging infrastructure. And there are many companies seriously selling those cars, a few even specialized only on the electric power-train that have no model at all immediately moved by combustion (but AFAIK, only Tesla doesn't do hybrids). Electric cars are here to stay. Tesla may have made some bad decisions, but they moved the entire political framework.
- dangus 3y ago
  What I’m saying is that just because Tesla was the first doesn’t mean that they or someone else wouldn’t have done something similar without Elon Musk at the helm. What changed is that batteries got cheap and more dense than they were. That change happened whether or not Tesla existed. China at the very least would still have a massive EV market without Tesla.

by dangus 3y ago

marcosdumay 3y ago

It's as if everybody just forgot that the world was full of propaganda against electric cars (hey, hydrogen is the future!), regulation was heavily stopping any car startup, and the catch-22 problem of not being able to charge because nobody had electric cars existed. Nobody was making a car startup on that scene. It's been what, a decade and half? It's amazing how people forget.

smoldesu 3y ago
A hydrogen pump just got installed in my county last month, actually. > regulation was heavily stopping any car startup, and the catch-22 problem of not being able to charge because nobody had electric cars existed. Now we have electric subsidies and replete charging stations, and we're not really any closer to democratizing the technology. I'll be real - the focus on scaling-up lithium-ion has been detrimental to the electric car industry, and set them back so far that hydrogen ignition might still win the lower-end market. Tesla put their pearls before their swine, and now it feels like they're paying the price.
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  Hydrogen powered cars are so full of problems that they won't happen anywhere. Nowadays electric cars are a visible minority almost everywhere on the planet. People seriously discuss the charging infrastructure. And there are many companies seriously selling those cars, a few even specialized only on the electric power-train that have no model at all immediately moved by combustion (but AFAIK, only Tesla doesn't do hybrids). Electric cars are here to stay. Tesla may have made some bad decisions, but they moved the entire political framework.
dangus 3y ago
What I’m saying is that just because Tesla was the first doesn’t mean that they or someone else wouldn’t have done something similar without Elon Musk at the helm. What changed is that batteries got cheap and more dense than they were. That change happened whether or not Tesla existed. China at the very least would still have a massive EV market without Tesla.