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Comment by dekhn | Hacker News Reader

once, I wanted to buy a tesla; I was waiting for inexpensive ones to become available. they are clearly not chasing me in my market, and elon musk's public asshattery has convinced me he is not a leader who will bring electric cars to the masses.

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If it weren't for musk pulling tesla forward, there probably wouldn't be any mass market interest in evs. The leafs are just not nearly as interesting. There wouldn't be a porsche ev without tesla taking some of their market.

I wish we see some other ev succeed without Elon musk. Because till then it is very likely that only lies and hype makes mass market interested in EVs. Because without the lies about fsd, self driving and the futuristic hype, Tesla might not be interesting either

The Tesla strategy was to make margin on premium EVs while the big names ignored the concept. Then to transition to mass market EVs before the big names could squash Tesla. We're getting right into the crunch point where everyone is coming out with an electric car. There are a number of entries selling at or around 10k/year, according to this listicle: https://insideevs.com/lists/10-best-selling-electric-cars-us...

I'm also curious to see if Tesla holds the lead it's earned in the US EV market.

> I was waiting for inexpensive ones to become available.

Huge batteries are really expensive. Just the Model 3's battery by itself is something on the order of $10,000 worth at retail costs.

Nissan can make a profit selling an entire car for just over $10,000. Let's say that a large carmaker like them can figure out how to build the entire rest of the car at a viable margin for $10,000. Then we should be able to see $20,000 EVs.

Problem is, no one wants to buy a car with $10,000 build quality for $20,000.

I believe there was a whole year of announcements from Tesla about making cheaper vehicles. They chose to make the more expensive models (better business) but it means I won't buy one (budget).

And yet, they currently make and sell the cheapest car they have ever offered, the mid-range Model 3, currently listed at $44,000 before credits, so $40,250 with the federal credit and $37,750 in California. Which is definitely cheaper than a year ago.

This may be true, but it's not what was said before by Tesla. Personally, I don't blame them for chasing the higher profit models, but it's against their stated mission of the past.

My decision now not to buy a tesla is about elon musk's public behavior (I could afford the $37,750 if I wanted to, but TBH, I buy used cars now).

Typical car manufacturing cost breakdown https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-actually-cost-manufac...

I'm still blaming him the EV market becoming mainstream..

Curious how so? The Leaf beat the Model S to market by 2 years. And through 2018, has sold 126,000+ units in the US (worldwide production blows away Tesla). Tesla has sold 140,000+ Model S's in the US during the same period.

The Leaf is actually affordable for regular people. The Leaf is the mainstream EV.

Also, what other EVs are out there in mass quantities? The Bolt only just came out, same with the i3? That's not a huge mainstream market at all.

To correct a few errors and omissions in the parent:

Tesla sold 141000 Model 3 in the US in addition to the 126000 Model S and X you note in that period. The total is 267000 cars in the US compared to the leafs 126000.

The i3 has been available in the US since 2014, the Bolt since 2016, which is hardly "just came out". However neither car sells in volume, both are well below 2000 per month over that period.

So who is that leader?

Preston Tucker didn't get to sell everyone a car with disc brakes and fuel injection. However, he did help move the industry towards that. Arguably, Elon Musk has already accomplished the same role.

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