Comment by Judgmentality | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Judgmentality | Hacker News Reader

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https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/9/22274376/audi-etron-gt-rs-...

I posted this the other day. I think most people agree the Germans make better interiors. But nobody can deny Tesla has a superior charging network, and for the vast majority of people their battery technology is superior (longer ranger, but more prone to overheating from aggressive driving).

I think Tesla is just riding the underdog wave extremely well - they're new, they're different, they're trendy, and they're eco-friendly. And honestly, if you're not a car person, their cars are fun and different (if you are an enthusiast you will likely have very mixed opinions of Tesla). Combine that with a CEO that can bend the laws of reality while he talks, promises for full self-driving which will absolutely never ever materialize, the fact that the competition is really quite slow to show up...and you get a ridiculous stock price.

I don't think Tesla is going away, but I think in 10 years they're going to be just another car company, especially if they shift their focus towards energy which is where the real money is for them.

Tesla reminds me of Saturn, a car company that rode a wave of an enthusiastic buyers until people started to notice their quality declining after significant cost-cutting.

Unlike Saturn, GM isn't meddling in Tesla's management, but it seems like similar mistakes are being made.

At least Tesla's are more fun to drive.

How are Teslas eco-friendly? I had to get a lower panel near the bottom of the door replaced, and they literally had to take apart the entire car. Literally my backseats and front seat were taken out just to get to this piece.

Teslas are about as eco friendly to repair as iPhones, which is not friendly at all.

“and they're eco-friendly.”

They certainly have that image, but I think an eco-friendly electric car would have to be smaller and lighter, even if that means decreasing range.

Going for a long range makes their cars unnecessarily heavy. That makes them require more power and increases tire and road wear.

I also think the competition is timing its entry quite well, arriving close to the moment when it becomes possible to make money making electric cars.

> Going for a long range makes their cars unnecessarily heavy. That makes them require more power and increases tire and road wear.

To be honest I don't think they are unnecessarily heavy for evs. Base model 3 is a bit over 1600 kg, while a base audi a4 weighs a bit over 1500 kg. Performance model 3 weighs about 1850 kg while and an audi rs4 weighs 1790 kg. Meanwhile the polestar 2, an ev comparable to a mid spec model 3, weighs almost 2200 kg.

Their energy efficiency numbers are similarly good and almost across the board better than competition evs.

Edit: I might just add that the weight argument has a bit more strength re the model s and x. Even if they're comparable to other evs, they are a decent bit heavier than comparable ICE cars. I think that's a result of the older platform -- I suspect a lot of work must have gone into model 3 to reduce weight.

I see weight not being as big of an issue. Obviously you can't go crazy nuts with weight but aerodynamics is the main factor.

Pushing air out of the way continuously is a real drain on energy.

Mass and acceleration are what causes road and tire wear. You can be 100% energy neutral and still not be truly eco-friendly.

https://www.emissionsanalytics.com/news/pollution-tyre-wear-...: “Pollution from tyre wear can be 1,000 times worse than what comes out of a car’s exhaust”

> But nobody can deny Tesla has a superior charging network

It isn't the future. There's more investment from more companies going into CCS networks. For example:

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/shell-pledg...

Not on their US VWs they didn't.

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