So two things:
1) If you don't have a dog in this race, wait and see if Tesla really does achieve these goals. Outrageous claims require strong evidence.
2) If you're a competitor, now is not the time to fold your arms, look down your nose, and say it can't be done. Tesla has a 50/50 (30% chance? 60% chance?) chance of eating your lunch, so it's a gamble to assume they won't succeed. And if you're a luxury car maker, you don't need me to tell you that as the Model S is already eating your (high profit margin) lunch: "Tesla’s Model S outsells Mercedes S-Class, Porsche Panamera, and BMW 6/7 Series combined in the US" https://electrek.co/2017/05/26/tesls-model-s-leading-us-larg...
If you're a competitor, you really have only one option: assume Tesla will succeed and so try to compete like hell.
Those cars are not even in the same class, of course Tesla would outsell them. Compare sales of the model S in Germany with the C class, BMW 3 (or maybe the 5) and just forget about Porsche.
Other cars you could compare it with are larger sedans of the premium variety Japanese manufacturers (Toyota -> Lexus, Nissan -> Infinity).
I'm really happy to see Tesla make moves but if you're going to make comparisons it helps if they're apples to apples otherwise you just make Tesla look bad.
Downvoters are encouraged to spend some time behind the wheel of an S class (even a 10 year old one will do) and then to go drive a Tesla for a bit.
Tesla S starts at $57K.
- Mercedes S starts at $97K - Panamera starts at $86K - 6/7 series start at $81K/$83K.
You're right, you're looking at mid-range Audis and the like. But having been in a 2016 S and several Audis the interior quality is hugely different. The Audi feels great, and the S felt like my eight year old Altima.
I don't want to sound like a hater - the Tesla is a lot of fun to drive, and I like electric, but still.
Whether the experience is exactly the same or not is irrelevant. If you're a luxury car maker, you're already feeling this; it's not a hypothetical.
3 Series - $33,450 (-34,550)
C Class - $39,500 (-28,500)
5 Series - $51,200 (-16,800)
Model S - $68,000
6 Series - $77,600 (+9,600)
Porsche Panamera - $78,100 (+10,100)
7 Series - $81,500 (+13,500)
S Class - $96,600 (+28,600)
The major German marques often seem to be investing in shared platforms for next generation models that support combustion and electric drive options, but it strikes me that a platform for a combustion based car has to support a ton of things the electric one often doesn't - combustion engines have typically needed much larger/complex gear boxes and drive train in general, plus all the big firewalls needed to keep engine fires out of the cabin and so on. A purely electric car company like Tesla can presumably build out its platform technology without having to worry about a lot of these things. I'd guess you can even build more cabin space for a vehicle of the same size and so on thanks to eliminating many of them. I wonder if shared platforms can leave in otherwise artificial constraints on the electric version for compatibility reasons?
The internal combustion engine is fantastically cheap for what it entails. It's as complicated as a bloody rocket engine, but an entire vehicle can be bought for a few months California rent. It took literally trillions to engineer it to what we have today. Companies don't want to abandon that investment.
And yet... That's what they'll have to do. The electric car will be so much cheaper to make (and is so much cheaper to operate and maintain) due to its fundamental simplicity that as soon as battery costs get lower, nearly everyone will be forced to transition to electric.
Also it is not before the next generation of cars (i.e. 10 years) that the bulk of their sales could really be mainly electric. (the world is not like California. A lot of people interested like me simply can't get an electric car - not even because of lifestyle, just because of infrastructure) In the meanwhile they will need to provide hybrid or simpler hybrid.
And traditional constructor are experienced at designing roomy interiors. Designing a single interior across a range is probably more a win than a loss.
BTW it seems that nowadays every constructor has some model ready to commercialise either in 2018 or 2019. Will be interesting to see if they really can hit their target and what Tesla competition is really looking like. Interesting times.
This is easier than actually producing 500,000 cars in 2018, of course, so that just makes it all the more likely they'll get there. Will be really interesting to see how they fare in the next two years or so.
So are you going to buy a car from one of them.. or the guy who is going to take us to Mars?
Which Vision do you want to be a part of?
Ah, electrek, the personal blog of an early Tesla investor. Great source. (not) This kind of statistic primarily serves as an example of how you can massage numbers to get the narrative you want.
This one contains graphs of the bandwidth consumed if you allow them to upload: https://www.google.com/amp/s/electrek.co/2017/06/14/tesla-au...
At the same time, Tesla is primarily video based and it is likely quite difficult to call home with gigabytes of video every night.
"Of course, the bandwidth varies based on what network it’s being sent from – meaning that some owners can track their home network, but not the data sent from the in-car cellular connection, which is covered by Tesla and managed by AT&T in the US."
[0]https://electrek.co/2017/06/14/tesla-autopilot-data-floodgat...
With buyers who may be less apt to replace their car every couple years, and a larger volume of buyers in general, I am kind of expecting more of Tesla's practices to get tested in court.
From a privacy standpoint, Tesla's 'learning data' is arguably a big deal, and from my understanding, something you currently can't shut off, even if you possess the title of ownership to the vehicle.
Right to repair is an interesting angle. They've made noises about opening things up to help with the influx of cars that the Model 3 will bring. Let's hope they follow through.
But imagine if you'd like to drive 160 km/h on the highway all the time, you probably need a car that has a rated top speed of at least 180 km/h.
Many max out at only ~130 km/h (~80 mph), most don’t reach 150 km/h (90 mph).
The models described in the wiki table are also the maximum power versions of those cars. There are lower versions which don’t even get to this velocity.
Interesting. Do you live in a no-speed-limit jurisdiction, such as Germany?
The VW e-up costs 22k EUR and has a top speed of 130 km/h, the BMW i3 full electric version w/o range extender costs about 35k EUR and has a top speed of 150 km/h.
This performance would be fine if I bought a car under 10k EUR but not for this price.
This is how they did the Model X. They had a reveal event, and at the end of that event they delivered the first six units on stage. Mere mortals didn't start getting theirs until quite a bit later.
https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/201...
http://bgr.com/2017/03/24/tesla-model-3-release-video-musk-o...
Elon has said in the past that too much customization really put a damper on Model X, so I wouldn't be surprised if these are all nearly identical except for color. There's also no all wheel drive model yet (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/845284390397665280) and therefore no "performance" option either.
- Wheels
- Paint
- "Autopilot"
Autonomous driving will be a game changer, but it's also vitally important for Tesla to capture the electric vehicle mass market.
Other reasons include a lackluster test drive of a Model S and my increasing skepticism of Tesla's practices as a company (aggressively selling cars before adding new features at a completely random cadence but claiming model years are unnecessary, promises like AP2 parity, QC failures at 20k cars over several months while also planning to make 20k cars a month, etc.)
But I digress, 40-50 mile range on EV only mode means most people can complete their commutes on EV only with a Volt. I charge at work and at home, so I can get 50 miles to work, 50 miles by lunch, and another 50 miles to go home.
A Volt specced out like mine has a Mobileye sensor for lane keeping assist, ACC, an interior not as needlessly spartan as the 3, 0-30 times slightly faster than last year's Model S 85, and a hatchback.
After driving the Volt I'm really saddened that GM won't push the Volt more. Not a single Model 3 reservation I know wouldn't be better served by a Volt, but most of them had no idea about stuff like the improved 50 mile range. Some even write it off as a hybrid (which it technically is, but they think 1-2 mile range, not 50)
Finally, someone who says things will grow exponentially and actually means it!
I wonder if enough people know about this to produce pressure to buy Model 3's quickly?
https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/how-does-the-electric-ca...
Estimated phase out schedule: http://i.imgur.com/D3AoD18.png
I don't think buying pressure matters too much at this point, though. It'll be a while before they can build enough for buyers to be the limiting factor. The tax credit will probably start phasing out while they're still production-limited.
