Tesla's own charger network also presents a slight advantage for potential buyers, other brands [for the moment] rely on home chargers, dealership sockets and third-party vendors like Chargepoint or Volta.
http://analysis.energystorageupdate.com/lithium-ion-costs-fa...
Even more scary is collusion of giants trying to kill Tesla. Say the Japanese automakers group together to share the risk and costs of building the same infrastructure.
My primary concern is the margin per unit. Only a handful of automakers today have been able to sustain their margins, namely Porsche which supposedly makes the most margin per car. If you wonder outside the luxury segment, you find razor thin margins and heavy competition.
Tesla and Elon Musk deserves a big award for bringing the EV market to people who succeeded in capitalism. But as you saw with Ford, just because you were first won't guarantee your place. Heck, without bailouts, there would be very few American automakers left.
And this is really where my argument for maintaining high margin per unit is essential for long term survival. That can only be accomplished by moving upwards, not downwards. The accumulative cost & risk of selling 2.5 model 3 vs 1 p90D can't be ignored.
Having said that the market seems undecided between the bears and bulls on the upcoming Tesla earnings report.
Very few? In fact, just one. Ford.
Someone would have bought the companies and continued making cars.
No way the supplier network would have survived a dual bankruptcy.
I'd be a Bolt owner today if I thought I could road trip in it at a reasonable level of stress.
But I think the larger point is still valid: the charging infrastructure is still not nearly as widespread as gas stations and charging still takes longer than re-fueling. For us, the compromise of a range extender is still the best of both worlds. We can run electric most of the time, but we can still use the Volt as a "regular car" for road trips.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Honda-EU2000i-Generator-Inverter-Stor...