Tesla's own charger network also presents a slight advantage for potential buyers, other brands [for the moment] rely on home chargers, dealership sockets and third-party vendors like Chargepoint or Volta.
Tesla has also opened the patents for their socket and charging designs. I can see a future where Tesla isn't necessarily selling a ton of cars, but is licensing technology and selling infrastructure (such as access to charging stations). This makes the purchase of Solar City make even more sense- they may care more about moving into the utility market than the car one.
I strongly suspect that's the strategy. Reusing supply chain/parts to build competitive new energy infrastructure, licensing commercialized technology to major manufacturers in order to fund R&D, and using early adopters/status products to "beta test" the next generation.
The battery cells inside the Gigafactory are created by Panasonic. So far it looks very unlikely that the Gigafactory will be able to produce battery cells at a substantially reduced cost when they're relying on subcontractors for all parts. Innovation in batteries is really hard. We've had lithium-ion batteries for nearly 50 years now, and they're just not improving that quickly. We'll get 5% a year improvements for the next decade if we're lucky. The Gigafactory won't change this. So I don't see how the Gigafactory will be a lasting competitive advantage.
No source, but I saw some comments here or on Reddit saying that getting batteries in the large quantities you need for EVs is very difficult. Tesla's Gigafactory allows them to not have to compete for that supply, which may give them a price advantage over others buying from Panasonic.
Battery manufacturers are already preparing for the electrical car revolution. Even if li-ion cells are supply constrained today, they won't be 5 years from now.
The gigafactory and charger network give Tesla some barrier to entry but I don't think the costs will make a giants blink.
Even more scary is collusion of giants trying to kill Tesla. Say the Japanese automakers group together to share the risk and costs of building the same infrastructure.
My primary concern is the margin per unit. Only a handful of automakers today have been able to sustain their margins, namely Porsche which supposedly makes the most margin per car. If you wonder outside the luxury segment, you find razor thin margins and heavy competition.
Tesla and Elon Musk deserves a big award for bringing the EV market to people who succeeded in capitalism. But as you saw with Ford, just because you were first won't guarantee your place. Heck, without bailouts, there would be very few American automakers left.
And this is really where my argument for maintaining high margin per unit is essential for long term survival. That can only be accomplished by moving upwards, not downwards. The accumulative cost & risk of selling 2.5 model 3 vs 1 p90D can't be ignored.
Having said that the market seems undecided between the bears and bulls on the upcoming Tesla earnings report.
> But as you saw with Ford, just because you were first won't guarantee your place. Heck, without bailouts, there would be very few American automakers left.
While ford had the cash to survive the Great Recession without a bailout, it would have not survived the collapse of the supplier networks when GM and Chrysler went under.
Would these purchasers have completed the purchase in time to keep the suppliers in business? If GM folds then the part supplier may feel fairly confident that someone else will purchase the assets and start ordering again, but their bank who lends them the money they need to weather the storm may be far less confident that the deal gets sorted out fast enough for the supplier to stay in business. Now multiply that by a hundred.
No way the supplier network would have survived a dual bankruptcy.
Perhaps one of these [1] in the boot would reduce stress. It gives about 4 miles of range per hour of charge [2], so only for reducing stress, not for actual planned use!
I owned a Leaf for 2 years. "Winging" it really, really, sucks. Especially when you have your family with you, who don't share your enthusiasm for electric vehicles. :D
I just bought a Volt for this reason. My wife will be able to stay electric 90+ % of the time, but this weekend's 150 mile round-trip out of town and back for her will be stress free. I'm not sure even being in a Tesla would be as convenient since I don't think there's a supercharger directly on the route.
Yeah, that's a good point. For some reason I was thinking of the Bolt with more like 200 mile range, which could still make this trip, but it would be close once you add in the bit of driving she did at the destination.
But I think the larger point is still valid: the charging infrastructure is still not nearly as widespread as gas stations and charging still takes longer than re-fueling. For us, the compromise of a range extender is still the best of both worlds. We can run electric most of the time, but we can still use the Volt as a "regular car" for road trips.
Tesla's own charger network also presents a slight advantage for potential buyers, other brands [for the moment] rely on home chargers, dealership sockets and third-party vendors like Chargepoint or Volta.