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Comment by mfiguiere | Hacker News Reader

13 pointsmfiguiere8 comments

(Disclaimer: I don't care about Tesla or cars in general, but I do care about statistics).

So, after not delivering any vehicles in Europe in October 2022, Tesla delivered a literal boatload of model Ys in November 2022, thereby outperforming, in that month, evergreen EV bestsellers such as the Kia Niro, BMW i3, etc.

Does this make the Model Y "the best-selling car in all of Europe"? Or is all this just clickbait? You will not believe the answer...

It's the bestselling in that month, like you said. It's also a bit nuanced. When I hear "best selling," I tend to liken that idea with "most in-demand." How many Teslas would sell in October had the supply been there? Is the supply/demand imbalance similar for other cars? If Tesla caught up on their backlog, would the demand still be as strong?

"not just for electric vehicles, but all cars" -- this is good news for the planet, regardless of what you think of $TESLA.

Perhaps, although my understanding is that the environmental cost of battery production and energy sources does make it less warm-and-fuzzy-feeling. Still a net good, but I've become less convinced over time that EVs will significantly impact climate change.

I honestly think in a lot of ways we’d be better off focusing on all the small engines (lawnmowers, chainsaws, etc). They are extremely dirty since they have no emissions controls what so ever. You can just see the particulates coming out.

(To add on a bit)

I dislike the current dumbing down to carbon and nothing else matters. Particulates are very impactful to health - but maybe that’s just my bias as an asthmatic.

That would be great, yeah. Or even just banning a lot of their use (e.g., leaf blowers).

But in general I think that, especially in the US, failure to invest heavily in public transportation options is the biggest problem.

Wonder how much of this is just that they have so few models, this big numbers in each bucket?

Whereas BMW probably sells about 20 different versions of just the 3 series

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