Although Elon Musk can look to 2020 and believe with some confidence that Tesla could have two significant technological leads over the mainstream EV opposition, his company clearly does not have a lead when it comes to mass production of vehicles.
Certainly, there is time between now and then for Tesla to look and learn and to tap into the automotive establishment about that.
Tesla hatch to make electric motoring cheaper
Whether Tesla can afford this time is a different matter. Production of the Model 3 remains a significant hurdle for the company and it has promised to launch a Tesla Semi HGV and the Model Y compact crossover in the next few years.
A compact Tesla EV made in China and sold at a discount to the European competition is a very attractive proposition, but getting to that point will be an uphill battle.
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Confused
They are not premium autos as
They are not premium autos as the interior is very cheap,even my son's Golf is better finished inside by far, and my Audi is way ahead.For large countries like Canada and us in remote areas they [all EV's] are still a no-go as there is NO charging infrastructure at all and as we are a small population we are not significant.Small European countries are OK with the high popukation density.For me to drive to my main Audi Dealer is 1400 km, the same as from SW Scotland to the south of France!
Alternative power sources...?
I don’t know what Canada is doing about alternative powe souces,but, are Solar panels any good there?, what about Geo thermal?......
The price is premium as is
The price is premium as is the performance, the demand is also clearly there. Your opinions on the interior clearly don't matter to buyers.
The vehicle itself is also produced with a good margin and that margin only becomes higher when you include the fact that its only the premium models they are building now.
As for areas of low population density, who cares?
No seriously, one of the most common arguements against electric vehicles is to state various edge cases. The edge cases don't matter, what matters is that in the region of 1/3 to 1/2 of the population of the G7 can run an electric vehicle today in terms of having somewhere to park and charge it.
That is a big enough market to allow a manufacturer like Tesla to develop electric cars that are superior to petrol ones (the price advantage will come in around 4-5 years following current trends).
Once electric cars are a substantial proportion of the market solutions to all the edge cases (e.g charge points in lamp posts for on street parking) will be solved due to pure commercial drivers.
As for Tesla is ballance of probabilities would indicate that the barriers to them scaling up electric car production apply to everyone else at least as badly (Jaguar have certainly not announced that they intend to scale the iPace to 500,000 units per year, GM's Bolt is selling only as many units as the Model S and likely make a loss as it is compliance car).
The first generation of "Tesla killers" to be released in the next few years look about comparible with Teslas first generation products which are themselves due for a refresh.The next Model S will probably be a stretched mk 2 roadster with its 1.9s 0-60 and 250mph top speed.
Even if the competition starts making compariable cars, Tesla is here now, it is an established brand and has volume. Tesla is likely in the EV space to become more like the iPhone vs Andriod. Andriod (the other EV's) make up most of the market but the iPhone (Tesla) is the most valuable marque. Given that post 2025 EV=normal car this means their current valuation is actually pretty cheap.
What a car...
What a strange situation to be in for Mr Elon Musk. In one hand he has roughly 400000 orders. On the other hand he has losses of $1 billion dollars a year. Can't be easy for those who lends the capital right!? Wow:-) Hope for the best Though Mr Musk!