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This is a valuable lesson for all startups. Tesla's in a dust up around a use case that they don't really need to address for a while longer and can still be ve

This is a valuable lesson for all startups. Tesla's in a dust up around a use case that they don't really need to address for a while longer and can still be very successful. Imagine how many people today fall into the category of i) Being able to afford this car ii) Owning only this car vs having a gasoline car and iii) Caring about traveling such long distances in the extreme cold? Some, for sure, but not many and not enough to dampen demand. The majority of electric car owners aren't going to undertake this trip at all (vs fly) or would use a second car to do so. Better to have said "We're still 18 months away from having enough charging stations and batter life to tackle this type of trip" and shrugging as you cash checks from people who'll do a 13 mile commute on the 101 or 95.

slantyyz 14y ago
>> a use case that they don't really need to address for a while longer Well, there's a Tesla store in Toronto. Toronto gets pretty cold in the winter, and traffic is pretty nightmarish getting in and out of the city during rush hour. And there's no way you're going to sit in this traffic without a heater on. There are lots of affluent people who live in the burbs outside of Toronto who make 120+km round trips (~75 miles) who will get stuck in really bad traffic to and from work, and probably leave their car parked in a spot that doesn't have access to an outlet during the work day. If the battery charge is going to drop that significantly on a cold day, I think it would make some people think twice about a Tesla (for the homeward leg of a winter commute) if they didn't already have a winter car or backup plan.