What a bizarre post - the "old" manufacturers have pretty much all released excellent EV cars across the market, many better than Tesla offerings in many ways.
Why the wierd goalpost moving of having to do this 20 years ago?
Why the wierd goalpost moving of having to do this 20 years ago?
"Tesla accounts for more than two-thirds of all-electric car registrations (almost 68%), which is a dominant position, but the non-Tesla electric vehicle sales are growing at a similar rate and potentially might outpace Tesla later this year."
If youre outselling everyone else _combined_ that suggests a clear current market winner.
https://insideevs.com/news/604580/us-bev-premium-car-sales-2...
Source: https://insideevs.com/news/564800/world-top-oem-sales-2021/
I mean, if you assume the US is the only market which exists, then, yeah, okay? Tesla is third or fourth in Europe and in China, both of which are larger BEV markets than the US, though.
The electric car market has been slower to develop in the US than in Europe and China for a variety of reasons (fuel's cheaper in the US for tax reasons, the average drive is much longer, consumer taste is more oriented towards large SUVs and trucks), but develop it has, and US consumers should soon have about as much choice of electric cards as consumers in other markets.
And they’re dodging the largest vehicle market entirely: fleet vehicles. At least a few years ago F-150s outsold all cars. Sprinter vans can’t be produced fast enough to meet demands. These dwarf family vehicles.
Their accomplishment was seeing a market problem and then killing it. Manufacturers were only targeting “city” vehicles or crunchy granola people with hybrids and EVs. Tesla made EVs freaking cool.
Seeing that as evidence that they’re the primary source for all EV innovation, though, doesn’t line up. They have a market targeted and are focused on delivering there. There is work going on with EV fleet vehicles, semis, etc. and they’re not involved.
It’s been about 10 years now, and they’re only making what an “old car company” would consider 1 platform with no sign of expanding. I think they’ll continue to dominate that space, but there’s a lot of innovation required to get outside of that footprint.
Here are some current European sales percentages:
https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Line/All-time-by-Y...
Tesla comes in 4th.
Still useful to have someone targetting Silicon Valley nerds that would otherwise own a Prius and a Porsche though.
- Fuel in Europe is on the order of 2x the price vs the US (largely due to low tax on petrol in the US)
- Average European journey in nearly all countries is much shorter than average journey in the US (things are closer together, less cultural tolerance for very long commutes)
- Differing consumer preferences in cars (the US _loves_ large SUVs and pickup trucks, which pose greater challenges to electrification than, say, hatchbacks)
- Electric cars are or at least were a cultural/political issue in the US in a way they're not in Europe. It would be deeply weird to be ideologically opposed to, specifically, electric cars in Europe, but that's quite common in the US.
All of this makes Europe an easier-to-address and safer market for the manufacturers than the US, so they targeted the US _first_. That doesn't mean they weren't interested in the US too. For instance, VW sensibly never released its eUp or eGolf in the US, because there's a tiny market for cars like that there. It also won't release its i3, but it will release its i4, which suits US consumer preferences better.
Incidentally, I think the US does have some _advantages_ as a market for electric cars, too. In particular, it's much more common to have a driveway or garage in the US than in Europe, and this makes at-home charging much easier.
Putting rechargeable batteries into a car form-factor is like strapping a jetpack to a horse. Not the transportation mode of the future.
They are just about getting there as of last year, after 15 years of saying they were going to. e.g. look back at VWs claims about how they were going to be an EV leader back in 2013, vs how long it took them to actually get the ID3/ID4 done.
e.g.
"Volkswagen Group will be the world leader in electric and hybrid cars by 2018, it says.
The bold claim came not from an offhand comment by an executive at this week's Frankfurt Auto Show, but in a press release announcing that the VW Group had set its "sights on market leadership in electric mobility by 2018."
“We are starting at exactly the right time," said Group CEO Martin Winterkorn before the show.
"We are electrifying all vehicle classes, and therefore have everything we need to make the Volkswagen Group the top automaker in all respects, including electric mobility, by 2018."
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1086902_volkswagen-will...
But yes as of now there are a lot of good cars from a lot of manufacturers.
Tesla had to give the industry an almighty kick up the backside to get us here though
Without Tesla all we'd have is stuff like the 2016 Leaf with 100 mile range because 'market research shows people just want an ev for running around town'
VW was third in Europe by 2018 (or second, depending on how you view Renault-Nissan), and first by 2020, so... not _that_ huge of a miss, perhaps? The ID3/4 were their second generation; the eGolf and eUp, while far less ambitious, sold pretty well.
My point really is that the traditional manufacturers wasted a lot of time faffing about. Lots of glossy promises about the future and not many actual EV cars being made. Possibly internal power struggles. I'm glad things are happening now.
e.g. BMW had the i3 in 2013 which was good for its time, then closed the whole program down and didn't come up with anything new until (correct me if I'm wrong?) last year?
In the UK, until the Jaguar i-Pace launched in 2018, Tesla were the only manufacturer with a 200+ mile range EV. In the States you had the Bolt but that never came to the UK.
But there's a lot of good stuff happening now so I'm happy. FWIW I drive a kia.
(they are one of the only german brands that offer literally every model in a hybrid version, with decent battery packs. I can commute full electric with my hybrid if I charge at work. I drive about 80% full electric. Really only use the engine in the weekend and when using sport mode)
Audi focused on hydrogen and full electric. Hydrogen wasn't the success they hoped it to be. Their gamble for CNG cars also didn't pay off. But at least hydrogen powered cars had electric motors, which is why Audi managed be have the e-tron already in 2018. That is a brilliant car, beats a Tesla in daily use imho, if only it had 100 miles extra range (it has about 200-250). And now they are just limited by chip shortages and battery production for a full electric rollout, same for BMW. The lead times on the i4, iX3 etc.. are ridiculous, 14 to 18 months. So why bother brining out newer models? That's why they stick to hybrid. You can make about 7 hybrids with the scarce resources to produce one full electric.