Tesla second-quarter profits top $1B even as it struggles to handle demand
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The next race will be for a reasonably priced electric vechicle the middle class can buy.
Preferably from a company that will around for the next decade. There's a bunch of startups that are catering to the over $70,000 wealthy crowd, but I'm not seeing low priced vechicle from companies that have longevity.
I really got to hand it to Elon. I don't think we would be here without him.
I am so close to retrofitting, or buying a salvage title Tesla.
(When buying a salvaged Tesla, you don't have access to firmware updates, parts, etc., but I would love one, even if I didn't have access to all the bells, and whisltles.)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltaylor/2021/05/24/volksw...
https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/results?prod...
The 10% import tariff applies to vehicle imports from countries that do not have a free trade agreement with the EU, including the US and China.
Imports from countries such as South Korea (Hyundai, Kia) and Mexico (Ford) are exempt from the tariff thanks to bilateral FTAs. Japan also has an FTA which phases in over the next decade.
Where are you from? Because here in Europe there are tons of VW ID3,4, Audi e-trons, Hyundai Kona's, BMW i3, Nissan Leafs. Some newer models from Kia, Skoda etc...
That, plus the electric charging situation has sort of already been solved in the EU by mandating the CCS plug.
Granted, the fast chargers are a plus for Tesla. But at least every EV can use every charging station over here.
Except Tesla's chargers... But luckily the other manufacturers didn't copy that business model.
But yes, there are lots of options in Europe. Tesla is just one of them, nothing special.
I personally don’t like the “all touch screen” interface of Tesla. I like tactile buttons at least for climate control. Also not a big fan of being dependent on Tesla’s interface for everything. I happen to like CarPlay.
I also think “Autopilot” is a wilfully deceiving name for a barely functional “copilot” that a driver always need to baby sit.
So, I’d rather buy a Hyundai Ioniq 5 with slightly lower tech specs than Tesla, but with better ownership choices.
I'm confused by this. Generally, "autopilot" has traditionally referred to a relatively dumb computer that is capable of keeping a vehicle/craft on an arbitrary heading.[0] Whereas a "copilot" is generally a human with similar skill and training as the pilot. If a vehicle manufacturer called their system a "copilot" that would surely be far worse than Autopilot.
(Or in the colloquial sense, "autopilot" can also refer to a person who is performing a task without conscious cognitive awareness. "I started getting ready to go to work this morning like I was on autopilot, but then I remembered today is Saturday.")
If you’ve “only seen renders” you haven’t been looking very hard.
The offerings from the other car companies do not currently surpass Tesla in any meaningful way I can see, and the assumption that the other car companie can "will into being" a technical marvel better than Tesla, seems to continue to be only an assumption.
I do not like Tesla or Musk very much, and would love for my next pickup to me an electrified F150, but none of the current electric offerings seem all that appealing if you aren't looking for a Tesla or can't reasonably commute in a Leaf. I am still skeptical I will be able to buy an F150 electric within the next 2 or 3 years, and would not be surprised to have to wait 3-5 years as they work out the kinks. I am not looking to plunk down 100k+ on GM's Hummer, either.
Dislike for Musk aside, I have to acknowledge Tesla is delivering a reasonable vehicle (discounting the stupid auto -pilot that isn't auto-pilot), whereas most other companies are still delivering small numbers of electric vehicles, but large marketing campaigns, which seem aimed at getting people to continue to wait on buying an electric car, because the next best version is always just around the corner.
As for marketing campaigns, almost every car ad I’ve seen this year in the UK is for electric models. Only Toyota persists in spreading EV FUD.
If/when Ford gets a lineup at least as broad as Tesla, I'll believe they are fully engaged to electric. The fact they are coming out with (I'm assuming) popular completely new vehicles like the Bronco that are still only ICE looks like they are still putting their R&D dollars into ICE far more than electric, or were until very recently. Heck, there are 2 more trim options available for the Bronco than the Mach-e.
the existing inertia of these large car companies means they can't flip fast. There's existing roles that depend on the performance of petrol car sales, and those people may, one way or another, not want electric cars to succeed (coz it means they lose out).
Core business cannot switch that fast, no matter how much they want it to.
Automaker-owned charging networks like Ionity and Electrify America certainly have plans to rival Tesla’s. Just they’re not there yet.
Tesla announced recently that they will open their Supercharger network up to all vehicles:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-...
Of course, the devil is in the details, like price. What premium will non-Tesla vehicles pay to charge at a supercharger?
It's a smart move. Like releasing iTunes for Windows.
Sounds like we've had vastly different experiences with this piece of software
Supercharging will obviously be a hassle for non-Tesla owners, but they'll sit there and watch people effortlessly using the system as it was meant to be used, and that will have an effect.
My brother bought me iPod as a present, it was cool device, but I failed to upload music to it.
On normal MP3 players I just moved files onto the player and it just worked.
Apple on the other hand... I never figured out how to do it with iTunes, I still don't know.
Some years later after installing Ubuntu I had an idea of using Rhythmbox to try to put music on that failed iPod and that worked like a charm.
Ubuntu instillation was easier for me than iTunes.
Well, I never even thought about buying Apple device ever since.
But in Europe, China, etc, Tesla are well positioned to offer a top-tier user experience.
For one thing, Tesla designs and manufactures all it’s own charging hardware. The other networks often consist of a mix of charging equipment from multiple different manufacturers, which contributes to bugs, unreliability, and higher servicing costs.
They all charge faster, sure. Where? I can drive two hours and reach 5 V3 superchargers. EA is notorious for chargers frequently glitching or failing altogether.
CarPlay and Android Auto are nice if your built-in infotainment are awful. Tesla has excellent infotainment, so need to lose functionality by bringing in a third-party vendor. That's less of a selling point than you may think.
The Kia EV6 does look absolutely marvelous, and I'm looking forward to driving one. The Taycan is a gorgeous car, and I'd like to check it out as well. Hyundai has been doing great things in the EV space, and they're some of the only cars that can match the Model 3 for WH/mile. Cool stuff.
We'll see if Rawlinson can pull Lucid out of production hell, and how well the end product stands up.
Point is: Tesla is being smart. They have a better product for less money than the competition, and unlike several other OEMs, they don't lose money per EV sold. Making people who are already EV owners stare at Tesla vehicles for hours is a smart move.
Everywhere there's a 350+ kW CCS charger. Even Teslas charge faster on CCS chargers: https://insideevs.com/news/507489/tesla-model3-charging-fast...
There is much better data out there which demonstrates that if you keep the variables under control, superchargers and CCS2 chargers with the same peak power availability have nominally identical charge rates.
There is no false interpretation. It's a flatter charge curve with a higher average charge rate. Similar to how the Mercedes EQS charges faster than the Model S Plaid:
https://insideevs.com/news/522577/mercedes-eqs-fast-charging...
> superchargers and CCS2 chargers with the same peak power
But they don't have the same peak power. 350 kW CCS chargers are common. Some are 400 kW. No Tesla charger offers that yet.
Tesla switched to CCS in Europe a long time ago. Tesla ought to switch to CCS in North America too. Cutting your customers off from easy access to an additional 4,550 CCS charging locations is not doing right by your customers:
There are millions of electric cars on the road. People charge these cars fairly often. If your interpretation has merit, it could be substantiated by hundreds—if not thousands—of data points. If you really want to rehabilitate your interpretation, maybe start by finding a handful of them.
As for the rest of your post, you are responding to an argument I did not make and have never made. I never claimed that CCS chargers cannot be faster than Tesla chargers.
I love your pomposity. Here's the Model 3 charging slower than three other cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gxcukAhIAU
Even the Audi e-tron beats it. How? Flat charging curve.
Should have put that Model 3 on a CCS charger.
Leaf is a cheap way to go green. Low performance, outdated UI, but pretty cheap.
Tesla is going green in style. Minimalism, performance, at a slight premium to ICE.
One thing to note is that leaf is one of the WORST vehicles values at % of resale value retained after 3-5 years, while Tesla is one of the best. So the market is very clearly looking for used Tesla over used Leaf.
Because Ford doesn't manufacture it's own batteries you've got to wait a year to get one;<(. Outside of a few big city dealers you can't even find one to do a test drive. A few dealers have them but they want $15,000 over list. But at least in Michigan you can get them repaired locally, a sizeable advantage over Tesla.
There are additional videos that you can peruse yourself to make up your own mind. Just search the channel for all the other Mach-E videos.
I would put more stock in Sandy Munro than Car & Driver (less conflict of interest and obviously far, far more depth).
Tesla factory in Berlin may balance it a little, but I don't expect a full swap.
Do they? Out of everyone in my social circle, when electric cars are brought up in any capacity (heh...), it's always Tesla.
They have something more important than market share - mind share.
Anecdotes are fun.
I can see other manufacturers gaining market share, and I think Tesla will eventually fall into the niche that Apple occupies for phones—not necessarily better on paper, but much better design and execution.
The car industry is going electric, fact. Phones are all touch screen, amazing cameras etc..
Tesla will be the 'fashion' brand everyone wants, and desires. Yes a Ford/Samsung might be nice, and have certain technical points that are better, but you won't be able to beat the end to end experience and desirability of Tesla/iPhone.
Tesla will be the status symbol that your Fords of the world can never be. Mercs are quite popular around these parts and are a status symbol today, but the premium on a Tesla, design, features and just pure speed tops all comparable Mercs.
Supercruise allows hands free operation and properly tracks user attention, 2 things autopilot doesn't do. It also has a much safer disconnect behaviour by slowly and safely pulling the car over to the side of the road rather than expecting the user to just take over.
> . It also has a much safer disconnect behaviour by slowly and safely pulling the car over to the side of the road rather than expecting the user to just take over.
Maybe? What happens if the shoulder is not really a shoulder, but part of a hill? What happens if no shoulder at all? Being rear-ended on a highway for going too slow is a thing.
The disconnect behavior I generally see is AP turns off, but TACC stays on. So you stay in your lane, staying a safe distance back, but no more lane changes. I believe if AP is really mad at you, it eventually will stop, but I don't want to stop on a highway to test it out.
GM was just showing off supercruise while towing: https://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/41643/super-cruise-hands-f...
Autopilot could add any and all of these things, but right now supercruise is the best L2 system available.
A Tesla model 3 is $39,990 right now on the website. I get that isn't quite "middle class affordable", but it's also not even close to "over $70,000"
What exactly are you trying to say with your comment? "People who don't want to live in my city should move here, purchase a home, and increase property values" ?
If there’s a place more low-cost than northeast GA I’m very interested to hear about it.
Example at 109k, bet you could offer 100
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3910-Addison-St-South-Ben...
That's a step away from what Tesla is doing today, and I'd rather buy that than any of the trash BMW, Daimler, or Volkswagen are selling today.
These manufacturers are sitting on their hands. And it's not just the tech. It's everything. My Audi A4 has virtually the same moonroof on it from 2007 that is being sold on the highest end trim A4s today.
It's stamped metal. Make it look hot already, and not like some car version of a short bus.
Tesla struggles with demand because everyone already knows what they want and zero manufacturers want to sell it.
Right. What I don't understand is why automakers don't release the same vehicle with the drivetrain type as an option. Big two-page spread ad in magazines that show what looks like two identical units of the same car with the headline "Can you tell the difference?", with the text below the cars describing how you can get the model you want regardless of whether you prefer gas or electric.
When Apple transitioned from PowerPC to Intel in 2006 it did not redesign the MacBook Pro; it just stuck an Intel CPU inside. Same with the Power Macintosh, Mac Mini, and iMac; only the lowest-end iBook became a MacBook The M1 MacBooks' exteriors are identical to the Intel models they replaced. Why can't automakers do this?
Because it's core component that takes much space. Powertrain decides overall car layout/design.
Having that said, there are some cars supports multiple configuration like PHEV/EV vs pure ICE, but I believe most of them are SUV style because there are many spaces to put powertrain.
Tesla has a ton of fixed costs, and they have to actually ship cars in order to collect revenue.
That's a good problem to have.
I’ve been wanting to buy a base model but the wait time on it is 2 months.
That means I have to order, make a down payment and everything and continue to keep my old car for 2 months while I wait to actually get the Tesla. For other car brands I can just goto the dealer and get it the same day.
Edit: Correction - I thought the finance/down-payment and stuff had to start after the order process - didn’t realize it was due after delivery.