https://teslanorth.com/2023/04/01/tesla-model-y-sales-denmar...
This is happening all over Europe and it’s only one of the two insanely popular models Tesla sell. My wife has a Polestar and it’s awesome (second best electric car manufacturer in my mind), but it can’t compete with my model 3.
Try a VW ID and see what you think of the software, in fact try any modern manufacturers software and compare it to Tesla. It’s always junk. The only reason the Polestar is close is because it’s native android running the show.
Tesla have a ton of issues, but the iPhone had a ton of issues when it launched, but if you were shouting about how good your blackberry keyboard was you were having the wrong conversation. I don’t think the other auto companies have embraced the paradigm shift that Tesla have introduced.
Nope, you constantly have to switch between CarPlay and the car's own software to do certain things.
In a Tesla it's all integrated together and works great, CarPlay is unnecessary. If I need to use my phone while driving, the phone's screen is perfectly visible from the charger/dock.
I consider the fact Tesla requires you to poke around in its software a huge design flaw and safety concern.
I can’t think of the last time I had to use my cars software over CarPlay - all the apps I need are there, and they do things teslas can’t that I rely on
I used CarPlay in my old car, it was great, thought I would miss it in a Tesla, but nope, I can see my phone screen fine from the dock and bluetooth audio works as well.
https://www.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2020/05/2020-Tesl...
This is because most cars other than Tesla have terrible software.
> they do things teslas can’t that I rely on
I'm curious what these are.
But for me for looks, interior etc, the Polestar is miles ahead of the Model 3.
Prefer Polestar, Hyundai, Kia and a whole bunch of others to Tesla.
You would think, but as soon as I start looking at Bolt EUV's Chevrolet decides to never get my money with their newest announcement[0]
[0]https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43488135/gm-apple-carplay...
I think Chevy is going to Android's whole-car auto system, not just Android Auto. In that system phone based nav probably does do things like inform dashboards and HUDs. And I think Apple has a CarPlay version out or coming that has similar capabilities. Only, Chevy and probably any other manufacturer is not going to make a car that wires two systems all the way through the car.
So I think it's not gonna be just Chevy, and since Android has more design wins announced than Apple as well as probably the brighter future outlook for market share (by way of being hedged across multiple sources) I think you might be looking down the barrel of either this standardizes, or Apple's out.
Upshot is I end up using native nav and really only use CarPlay for phone-based audio apps. I've only had the car for a few weeks, so maybe I settle into a different pattern long-term but I doubt it. I bought it for stuff like HUD-based nav, so having it be either/or probably means no CarPlay.
Tesla came out with their first car in 2008, so we are not talking about a "first gen iPhone" with the Model 3 (which came out in 2017). The point is that Tesla is squandering their huge lead.
The model 3 was the FIRST Tesla that the average car consumer could consider actually getting.
https://twitter.com/ICannot_Enough/status/161212131982648934...
I wish I could squander like that.
It's charting % change from 2021 - 2022 vehicle sales.
If you add a couple other manufacturers from the [1] source data, this becomes more apparent. Rivian sales were up 12-million% in the same time period. Doesn't mean Rivian is crushing the market.
This chart is showing that Tesla went from selling 331,000 vehicles in 2021 to 491,000 vehicles in 2022. And while Toyota (by comparison) looks bad on the tweet you linked, they sold about 5x the vehicles that Tesla did in the same time period.
Tesla's growth in that period can largely be chalked up to being "a vehicle manufacturer with EVs in stock and available to sell". That special position is starting to erode, and will erode further with time.
When customers can easily choose between a range of EVs available from a range of manufacturers, things like, "can I trust my vehicle to warn me when I'm about to back into another car" will matter a lot more.
I personally don't think Tesla is going to tank, but I do think they're going to have to work to be competitive to a different standard than they have in the past.
[1] https://www.autonews.com/sales/dec-us-auto-sales-market-slid...
I don't always agree with Tesla's -UX- decisions, and things that are buried layers deep, but their UI is certainly one of the nicest, agreed. But there's more to it than that.
And if the response to that is "Just use voice control", well, then it doesn't matter anywhere near as much that they have the nicest UIs.
The big thing I notice is that a lot of Tesla owners are fully bought into the "dinosaur" hype and think that many Tesla features are exclusive to them.
Meanwhile, my non-Tesla has things like:
- Traffic sign recognition - my car talks to (well, listens to) the traffic lights in my city and actually will show a countdown until when they will change. It will even recognize school zone signs and (at least when they are connected to lights) will recognize when those are active (will display 'school' above the speed limit, regardless, and then blink that if it notes a blinking light associated with that sign).
- Adaptive blind spot - so nice. Speed differential low, or you're going faster? Will not activate, or only activate last moment. But if someone is blowing by you in the HOV lane, it will warn of them when they're still several hundred feet back.
- Laser headlights. Matrix headlights. Night vision with thermal imaging.
- Predictive active suspension - The car actively scans the road ahead with sensors and it will adjust suspension for poorer road conditions.
- The car can not just stop, but will actively swerve, if safe, around obstructions to avoid a collision, or even a parked car opening a door into traffic.
All this in the Model S price range.
(asking because I honestly don't know)
It also doesn't have traffic light communication. Nor school zone identification.
Predictive active suspension - no. The car treats even road sealant at times as an obstruction.
Will not swerve around another vehicle - only AEB.
Ok, this is just a blog, but it seems to have it (for at least 2 years now)? Or am I missing something?
> Will not swerve around another vehicle
Huh?! Ever seen a recent FSD video? I've even seen it swerve around wildlife?
> new control settings for Standard and Sport modes allow the driver to adjust the suspension for a smoother or more “road aware” driving feel. Originally a move away from the control structure of the older Smart Air Suspension, the Adaptive Suspension is raised and lowered based on preference selections in the control panel (Never, Always, or Highway) rather than through ride height by increments.
The Audi system does that and a bunch more:
- raises the car for ingress and egress
- It's also meant to absorb the road's pitches and dips by prepping the chassis where appropriate.
- In comfort mode, the front camera pairs up with the steering, which allows the car to feel any unevenness and signal the system to respond accordingly.
- Audi also claims that a "curve-tilting function" cuts down on lateral acceleration felt by occupants.
- "Upon entering a curve, it elevates the side of the body on the outside of the curve and lowers the other side, thereby tilting it into the curve up to three degrees,"
and more.
Inertia. It works both ways - they may coast on their past reputation now, but when the market catches up, they'll find it hard to regain customers even if they course-correct.
100kw supercharging just worked and got us to a free charger. Really nice compared to the competition.
The one really bad thing was how loud the car was. Wind noise was at 150km/h at a level a BMW had at 190km/h. Also AI/car detection was really bad in (heavy) rain.
(Without rain) Also on German roads, traffic speed sign detection was totally random. Signs not detected, signs detected that are not there. ID3 E.g. had none of these problems I guess b/c they use map data for speed limits not speed sign detection.
All in all I'd nevertheless buy the Tesla not the ID3.
1. Opinionated “clean” UX has no place in a car. The important buttons need to be bigger and the alerts clearer. Colors need to be employed to draw attention.
2. A shocking number of bugs get released on stable that they fix in the next release. It seems the car prompts you about an update almost every time you drive.
3. It’s annoying to have to rely on two data plans that provide the same functionality - let me use my phone data instead of upselling me on a data plan that I need to have a good experience.
4. It’s super annoying to rely on their Spotify player which keeps getting worse (ie hiding the shuffle button below two levels of tiny arrows - what??)
5. Their voice recognition is awful - worse than Siri. It’s starting to feel extremely antiquated. The fact I can rarely call up the right name to send a message and then have to make several attempts to speak a message - bleh. Will this ever be an enough of a priority for them to compete with google? No, but it’s critical for car software and the gap between their walled garden and state of the art will get worse and worse.
6. They dedicate almost the entire screen to a worthless animation of what the car thinks it sees. Sure it’s “cool” but it’s a waste of precious screen real estate and frankly shows their hand on how bad their camera recognition really is.
The whole thing seems super arrogant to me. Maybe before the age of CarPlay and android auto it made sense to build software as a car company and was a differentiator, but not today - my next car definitely won’t be a Tesla for precisely this reason.
CarPlay just seems like a bandaid on bad car software, which still isn't well tied into the car's climate controls or other settings anyway so you have this weird half and half experience.
The thing that makes CarPlay and android auto great is anyone can write software that pops up on the infotainment screen.
I will never get a vehicle that doesn’t have it again.
https://www.notateslaapp.com/images/news/2022/wireless-charg...
Having those apps run on the main screen has advantages... - touchscreen is easier to access - screen is bigger - screen is better placed (less eye movement = safer)
https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1139243_gm-to-phase-out-...
My Honda has physical buttons for HVAC and that's just fine.
What are use cases for fully-integrating the entertainment/nav into the rest of the car? The only one I can think of is coupling nav to battery state management in EVs (and yeah, that's a BIG one).
Tesla's software isn't just 'infotainment' it extends to controllers across the entire vehicle - all can be improved with software updates.
Now I'm picturing a Tesla kool-aid drinker driving down the highway with their fully self beta ludicrous speed engaged, watching youtube with their headlights off.
Don't worry, they'll fix it in the next update...
I’m calling it - 10 years from now, a car company will roll out “physical controls” as a feature and it will be heralded as a great advancement in usability.
Well ok, but this is now true for most manufacturers, isn't it?
What I do have that a 2023 Tesla will never have, no matter how many updates it gets:
- A dash in my center view that is as or more informative than Tesla’s while driving
- Blind spot camera feeds that pop up prominently on said dash as needed instead of some corner of a tablet in the middle of the car
- A HUD that maps most of the important driving information directly onto the windshield, including navigation arrows “on” the road
- Physical controls I don’t have to look at to find while driving
I also have ADHD. If I look away from the windshield it’s a little random when I get back. Without these types of things that keep my eyes front and center by putting the prettiest lights there, I’ll be in trouble someday, and maybe get someone else in trouble too.
Tesla’s entire car UI aesthetic of drawing attention away from the centerline and then making you search a screen is simply fundamentally flawed and is detrimental to safety. Nobody will ever convince me otherwise because I know it’s detrimental to mine, and I know I’m just a canary. What affects me affects others, I’m just the one where it’s easier to have a consequence.
Plus, to the subject at hand, my Ioniq has parking sensors with collision avoidance and the best 360 view I’ve ever seen, with a 3D reconstruction of your car and surroundings you can swipe around with a virtual camera.
And just to seal the argument, the MY would’ve been cheaper when I bought my Ioniq 5 less than a month ago. I still bought the Hyundai. It’s safer.
PS of all of the features it has, my Tesla MY owning friends seem to want this last one most:
- Sunshade that closes over the roof glass panel
1. Their "self driving" adaptive cruise is very bad compared to other brands. Because they dropped radar and don't use proven modules like others.
2. Same for their idiotic attempt to replace well working sensors for automatic wipers with not working cameras.
3. And now this next thing on parking sensors that just don't work.
Still hordes of people are stupid enough to believe Musk claiming it's all great innovation and good for the customer. While in reality things just don't work and Tesla is cutting corners.
Elon Musk is a prime example of an "alternative facts" kind of liar. Keep shouting loud enough and some people start te believe you. He got very far with all his lies, but so did Bernie Madoff...
You can diss the wipers or parking sensors but pretending that the competition is anywhere near autopilot, especially the newest one based on FSD code, is hilarious.
Maybe several years ago. My car stays happily in the center of the lane -and- doesn't veer to the right with offramps, or lane count changes.
One of the problems with some Tesla owners is they buy too fully into the "dinosaur" thinking, and assume that other manufacturers have not adjusted their thinking since the 90s.
My car actively maps the road ahead and will, while staying in lanes, avoid potholes, for one very simple example.
This was a pretty big disappointment for me coming from a 2005 (!) Audi A4 which has auto wipers that work _almost_ flawlessly (and has a physical adjustment on the stalk when I need to override).
I'm very much not a Tesla hater - overall I _love_ the car. I just wish a few details were different (speedometer & nav more directly in line of site, physical controls for windshield wipers, CarPlay integration). I've just been kinda shocked how bad the auto wipers are for a brand new car.
Adaptive Cruise works well for me though, although I enjoy the act of driving so I don't use it all that often other than long straight highways.
This is interesting. What links can you provide backing this up?
Would the masses take it? Who knows. But I'd be all in on that one.
Maybe relax on the 300mi range and get a Nissan Leaf.
Living in the sticks?
ICEs enabled housing sparsity, reversing that is part of the solution.
I’d like to know what percentage of GDP is done “in the sticks”. It’s one of the more viable ways to address NIMBYISM and locality problems.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/redefining-rural-am...
That census definition of urban/rural is different from the colloquial definition. The census link allows an "urban" classification as low as 2,500 people.
Colloquially-defined rural areas have been decimated by globalization in the last 40 years. The "rural" area I grew up in had thousands of manufacturing jobs; now it may have 200. The drop in GDP goes far beyond urban sprawl enabled by ICE vehicles.
Also critical infrastructure is out “in the sticks” like dams, power infrastructure (lines/plants/storage), and the support of the container trucks. Then there’s agriculture. It all needs to be electrified and reachable by electrics.
Edit Just to expand on this, the current 90/10 split (500 miles gas/40ish electric) has cut my long distance drive gas usage down by something like 50-75%. If it were more like 500 miles gas/100 miles electric that’d probably cut it down to 2-4 gallons of gas per month or less. Around my house is already fully electric with the 10%.
The numbers I have not done are would simply going inline series with the gas be better than having the traditional power train and electric. In line meaning a generator to fire up the amps needed when the batter gets low-how modern trains work. I’m guessing it’s not so obvious since BMW cancelled their range extender.
These luxury features aren't why these products are so expensive. They are thrown in to segment the market and make people feel better about spending this huge amount of money. There is no incentive for the people producing these products to remove these luxuries.
Soon the only option for people who can't afford or simply don't want to buy the new luxury product is to buy an old and rundown version of what was once a luxury product. New affordable alternatives just aren't as profitable so they aren't produced anymore in the quantities that we actually need.
https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-often-do-te...
The battery still drives costs to some extent, but the bigger issue is manufacturing capacity; you can only make so many EVs on the existing production lines (including battery factory capacity), and there's plenty of high-end demand to consume the supply, so you're not going to leave money on the table selling a cheap car.
People who want a cheap EV just have to do what every cost-conscious consumer does when a new technology comes along: wait. At some point there will be plenty of EVs for the PMC and it will make sense to build one for the rest of us.
While I think plenty of buyers yearn for a "traditional" car, it's hard to justify one with the added base cost of electric. The Nissan Leaf got pretty close to this (albeit with less range) and while it sold OK, it was far from a barn-busting success.
The marginal cost of adding gizmos and gadgets to an electric car is not very high due to the large base cost sunk into the platform, so we get gizmos and gadgets.
This may be plausible, but is there data to support it? Because, anecdotally, all the add-ons of "gizmos and gadgets" options can blow up the price. For example, a base F-150 is $43,325. The Platinum options package adds over $23k in just options.
I suspect the more likely culprit is manufacturing cost and efficiency. It just makes more sense to make electric windows the default when the majority of people are going to pay for them anyways.
But there are stories of people driving them in below 0 F where if you don't warm it up in the morning (via setting the leave time when charging) they have real loss. This is another area tesla is way ahead, with the battery mgmt system working better in the cold, plus the heat pump. People in cold Quebec also suffer this cold weather.
I'd pay extra for that
We have villages in Eastern Europe that don't have plumbing or gas, yet they have fiber optic cable and free and fast public Wi-Fi, so you see horse-pulled carts carrying villagers with laptops.
That's what I'd feel like in 2023 rolling my own window in an EV.
AUD$35,000 for small subcompact is not cheap.
For the car you're describing, check out the Chevy Bolt EV/EUV. It's the closest car to what you're asking for, although it doesn't have a 300 mile range. It may be hard though, Chevy is moving all they can make.
The Oli is especially impressive in that they've learned that you can sacrifice battery capacity, and if you just keep the car lightweight and aerodynamic enough, you can still get decent range. They're claiming a (pretty phenomenal) 6.2 miles per kWh, and for a car targeting a price point starting at $20k that offers the utility of a small city car, SUV, and pickup truck in a single vehicle, I find it compelling, even as the sort of person for whom this is the least viable car.
And if $20k sounds like too much, the Ami is less impressive, but I think starts at closer to $10k.
Will cost less and be more weight efficient
However....the decision was made to stick with +12V because, mainly, the Industry pumped out accessories (door locks, fans, you name it) that run on +12, and hence +48 would be 'custom' (read: 'expensive'). Was also true of the actuators. The moby FETs needed to switch the current existed and heatsinking wasn't too much of a problem, and so.... +12V it was. Big-ass thick wires... ok....
It seems some others inside found my memo recently -- or re-discovered what I had found -- and, finally, +48V seems to be moving into vehicles. With a +48V LiFePo battery, it should work really well. And to the original comment here: yes, your copper wiring is smaller because E x I is same but I*2*R is less because I is less for given power. Note the squared term; that is why +48V is a win.
Somehow, it seems like some folks (I am by no means the first!) 'see the future' but for reasons I don't fully understand, The Future seems to take longer to get here than necessary.
Microsoft tried to sell the world on Smart TVs back when most Americans had dial up.
Smart car infotainment back in I think it was 2008 or 2009, complete with voice control.
Sometimes being early can be worse than being late.
(Look at all the early attempts at ebooks!)
I don't care about playing Doom or The Witcher on the giant touchscreen infotainment system in my car, nor do I want any so called "smart" featured that don't work right half the time.
Give me Android/Apple connect and physical knobs and switches and I'm good.
It’s a better car though.
And yet for some reason GM is planning to remove CarPlay and Android Auto from their EV lineup in the next year or so, because screw you consumers.
The early mobileeye autopilot was actually pretty good, it did traffic aware cruise control and autosteer, making driving easier. Everything after that seems only marginally better.
Plus, an electric car (or any valuable car) is prime target during civil unrest. It's fun to destroy expensive stuff. It's not fun to destroy a mid-2000s Civic.
I think it would be easier to find a battery storage in one of the houses that have solar panels (like 50% of them in my neighborhood) than a gas can.
The only time I didn't have one was when I lived in apartments.
My in-laws have a larger property but they also go with electric based tools, but yeah one of their neighbors does have such lawnmower (I would probably buy robot one, but...).
But you are right I forgot that there are tools that do require gasoline, 30 years ago those gas cans were used for storing gasoline for use in a car or motor (when I lived in apartments).
Hard for an ev to beat two 20L jerry cans adding 300km of range to a tank with 450, in the winter, with 500lb of gear. I imagine one day a PHEV will replace my truck but we’re not there yet.
Don’t take the collapse of society to suddenly need to grab a few jerry cans and travel a long way quick where there is no ev chargers
But also: I find this attitude a bit silly. The last 3 years have kindof proven the preppers right, haven't they?
Electric vehicles are a bit harder, but even there, it's possible to install enough solar panels and battery storage to last virtually infinitely.
Disaster resilience is easy to achieve, if a bit expensive if you're going on a "full societal breakdown" scenario. No matter what, unless you're a grain farmer with storage, you're running out of food way before running out of transportation.
[1] https://www.geratech-tankanlagen.de/tankanlagen-diesel-adblu...
> all you need is a tank in your shed
Maybe two tanks so you can rotate fresh fuel - now deliver and pumping is a regular operation? Must be designed so water doesn’t condense (not just drums?). Or underground to help if you in warmer climate? Keeping diesel around for decades while waiting for a disaster is going to be a hassle.
Perhaps solar on your roof and an electric car is likely to be more practical (depending on your personal constraints).
And I won't be digging up a hole in yard and turn into a petrol station.
Most gas stations - for both diesel and gasoline - rely on electricity to pump the gas. No electic = no gas. The stations that run during outages generally have generators to do so. You might have some luck for a short time.
After that, no power, no generator, no gas. The trucks won't even be able to get diesel to deliver it to you.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Displ...
It's not that Tesla is good. Tesla's in-car SW is not good, it's just the least crap in a crapsack industry.
Plus Tesla serves customers who don't want a silly crossover -- most other brands are only making EV crossovers. If you want a smaller car you don't have very many choices, and most of them cost more (e.g. Porsche Taycan, the Audi version of the Taycan).
This is probably a product of where you are. I see plenty of actual EVs in a lot of shapes and sizes and from what I can tell, price ranges. (Not actually in the market for a car, so I'm unsure of any sizes). Of course, I'm in Norway and there are many electric cars on the road and they've been building the infrastructure for them - and the mix of brands available and what brands are cheaper than others would vary quite a bit from, say, the US.
There is nothing "Bad" about the model 3 handling, but nothing good either. It is vastly under-tired for how heavy it is, but of course you can fix that with big wheels and tires. It also has no adjustable front camber, a necessity to set up a car to handle decently. Its just got a totally normal suspension, and is atypically heavy with atypically narrow tires.
Now does it set good times on certain tracks? Absolutely, because it has 500 horsepower from "idle" up to a pretty decent speed. On tight, short tracks it can power out of corners in an absurd manner.
But the "handling" is really kind of bad, which can be fixed in the same way you can fix any cars handling (aftermarket coilovers, a proper alignment, and big tires)
I realize there is a valid point here that actual handling doesn't matter other than "the steering feels fun to me for whatever reason" and sure, the Tesla does that decently. So does a Mazda CX-50 crossover for some reason. (I dunno why but they gave it the sportiest steering feel ever)
Also, as a practical matter, you have to ride the accelerator pedal in a Tesla because the car will roll to a stop in a very short distance if you don't. With most other cars, you can hover your foot over the brake to prepare for an emergency. I assume that some fraction of the people whose Teslas "accelerated out of control" when they were trying to hit the brake didn't realize this.
at least when I drove a model s this wasn't really possible because the car would slow rapidly when I took my foot off the accelerator. nice to know that can be disabled, ill look for it next time I'm driving a tesla
Even taking your foot off the brake at an intersection will cause the car to drive right into it. That seems crazy when coming from a car that when it is stopped, it remains stopped.
Holding the brake is like holding the trigger of a grenade.
And again, when I drive cars that don't slow down without input, or creep, it just feels more out of control and dangerous. The Tesla is inherently safer by quickly slowing down when no input is applied.
I'm sure that it feels safer, but a lot of people felt safer in cars without airbags too.
Also, relying only on auto-braking is a really bad idea. A lot of people have died doing that (not just in Teslas). It works 99.9% of the time, but that other 0.1%...
Tesla has its battery supply chain nailed down to a degree its competition can only dream of. That’s slowly changing. But they likely have another half decade of margin advantage before the majors begin to seriously bite into their volume.
- John Maynard Keynes
There are many people who predicted the 2008 financial crisis but only a few of them were able to time it right make a profit.
Did they have a change of CFO or similar in the last 6 months?
While true, the seagull types seem to exist in every profession.
eg fly in, crap everywhere, then leave for the next place before they catch the blame ;)
More expensive, worse range, worse charger network, worse software etc.
I wish there was more competition in the space, it’s starting but the legacy companies wasted a decade doing nothing (other than trying to pass legislation so they could continue to do nothing).
Kia and Hyundai have some solid options. If I were in the market for a car at the moment I'd probably go with the Hyundai Ioniq 5. The software isn't quite what you get in a Tesla, but I honestly prefer just using CarPlay (wired, unfortunately, but you can get an adapter for wireless).
You lose a bit of the "cool factor" with these like the weird Tesla keys, and the mobile apps aren't great (though they may have improved in the last 1.5y since I've seen them). But as a car, they function very well and have features similar to Tesla's AutoPilot - just called something like Adaptive Cruise like it should be.
Especially interesting considering LX is their base trim (or at least it used to be on ICE cars).
In NZ base ioniq5/ev6 cost slightly more, but you don’t get panoramic roof, autopilot, app, leather seats, heated seats, electric tailgate, storage.
What Tesla is missing tho is v2l, buttons, carplay.
Overall people here seem to like paying a little more just not to be seen driving “flashy Tesla”…
Should their market cap be $600b, higher, or lower given this statement?...
The competition is coming, but it won't put a hard crimp on Tesla until battery prices drop significantly and EVs stop being luxury goods.
Nope [1].
> I haven't seen the sales figures
This is just a fantasy. While it reviews well, they are impossible to buy and Ford struggles to make any money from it. Ford sold just 13,000 of them last year. Maybe it might sell well in future, but to date its a rounding error on total F150 sales.
I would recomend actually being familar with the rough sales volumes before passing opinion on them, personally. Tesla's lead is not some fanboy exaggeration.
> They haven't put anything that they've announced on the road since the model 3.
The Model Y, They shipped nearly 800k of them last year alone. The Tesla Semi is also shipping now.
Of the 13k that have been shipped, a very large percentage are registered in Michigan - Ford employees. The amount of F150 Lightnings that have made it through the retail channel to actual customers nationwide is still really low.
13k sales of any vehicle in a year is not fast by any definition appropriate for the US car industry, especially a truck! My point still stands - the F150 Lightning to date has not sold well, at all, loses a lot of money for Ford, and the 150,000 a year by Autumn 23 as Ford previously targeted seems a pipe dream.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43473797/2023-ford-f-150-...
There are even more competitors coming too.
What you are referring to is the Veblen good effect Tesla has. You think that the brand is beyond competition, which I unfortunately agree with. People buy feelings, and there is a feeling when you buy an Elon Musk product.
After his acquisition of Twitter there's a feeling alright. Just not the one there used to be.
In 1995, when Windows 95 launched, Apple bought newspaper ads highlighting how Microsoft’s new OS was adding features that the Mac had ten years earlier. They completely ignored the reasons why people wanted PCs instead of Macs. The company nearly died and was only saved by the “reverse acquisition” of NeXT and a total platform pivot by Steve Jobs.
Tesla's still riding most of its (IMHO/AFAIK) innovations: EVs as a status symbol; charging network; dealerships; manufacturing. Of those, only manufacturing has any pressure on towards continual improvement. (More chargers has demand, but not pressure).
Still. There's more non-Tesla fast chargers around every year, there's way more way better looking EVs from all the other brands; it is coming. I do think they'll catch up, but I don't know if they'll reach the point of competing for pack leader.
Disclosure: I freakin' love my Tesla Model Y.
Even this guy who has no skin in the game knows how far behind everyone else is and laughs at all you haters. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj--iMtToRO_cGG_fpmP5XQ
This meme is tired and stale. It is possible to have a skeptical outlook for Tesla that is not connected to a short financial position.
> Even this guy who has no skin in the game
Okay, I see how this is going. You are kidding, right? Munroe has -repeatedly- disclosed that he has a significant financial investment in Tesla.
Tesla does some wild stuff for sure, but they are the largest(and will remain) car company in the world for a reason.
Tesla is not even in top 10 in terms of revenue or number of vehicles sold.
The UAW didn't fight so hard to get Tesla excluded for nothing.
https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2022-us-vehicle-sales-figures-...
Here is what the competition manged for all of 2022
GM: 39,000, Ford: 61,000, Hyundai: 175,000, Kia: 80,000
Combined, Tesla delivered more Evs in one quarter than their competition manged in a whole year, combined.
Sales in Q1-Q4 2022:
Volkswagen (cars): 325,100 (up 23.6%)
Audi: 118,200 (up 44.3%)
Skoda: 53,700 (up 9.3%)
Porsche: 34,800 (down 15.7%)
Seat/Cupra: 31,400 (up 140.8%)
Volkswagen (commercial vehicles): 7,500 (up 109%)
other (MAN, Scania, Navistar): 1,420 (up 75%)
Total: 572,100 (up 26.3% year-over-year)
I know that the vast majority of merc sales were not EVs but i think they are making enough to know hows its done.
Vertical integration seems tesla main moat.