In what way aren't they?
And honestly i feel there will be some sort of production snag that prevents the actual launch happening in 2017 for Tesla.
In what way aren't they?
And honestly i feel there will be some sort of production snag that prevents the actual launch happening in 2017 for Tesla.
You talking about comparing Bolt vs 3?
They're only similar because of their ability to achieve more than 200 miles/charge and they're both under $40k. That's about it.
Otherwise it's like comparing Honda Fit to a Honda Civic sedan... Looks alone can make them worlds apart...
Anyway, production snag or not, I'm pretty confident that Elon will eventually deliver and Tesla will become one of the biggest companies in the world... surpassing Apple!
Just a matter of time... assuming Trump won't end the world first.
The biggest thing Tesla has going for it is the Apple effect. Doesn't matter really how good it is, people want to be seen with them (in them in this case). They aren't at iPhone level, but maybe iPod. iPod was never the best portable music player, but it outsold everything because of image and marketing.
This analogy is kinda flawed in a bunch of ways, but mainly because the Model S was more like iPhone level of innovation, but came out first (roadster not withstanding, that could be considered the Newton ).
I think the biggest thing Tesla has going for is the difficulty for copycats to copy their products. GM can only compete with numbers on paper, but in reality their cars can never be as cool as Teslas. The chinese are also having difficulties producing comparable knock offs for now, but as Tesla begin production in China, unless Elon guards his secrets and know hows well, I'm sure Chinese will eventually be able to make a copy with their cheaper and comparable version at least for its own market. They've already successfully copied rockets and commercial airplane, so surely EVs will be next, but probably only with government funding.
I think the 'secret', or future vision, is in Elon's head and his 'know how' are his employees. The fact that Tesla openly shares their intellectually properties proves my point that it's hard to copy them. Main hurdle is probably just money. It probably took a lot of investment from companies like Apple to setup all the supplier chains in China. Once that's complete, chinese copycats can easily come up with decent phones and tablets that are way cheaper.
Right now, nobody's willing to invest that much initial money to build that many batteries and that many cars...
Faraday Future is probably the only company willing to spend so much money to follow Tesla, but I think it's clear that they're still way behind. They're having trouble raising enough money to build their factory to build their $150k car...
GM is the other main competitor trying, but even if they are successful, the GM Chevy name brand will never be able become as good as Tesla.
Anyway, more attempts the better. Tesla cannot and should not be the ONLY EV company. An industry cannot be supported by just a single company. Not that I'm afraid of monopoly, but I'm just worried that should Tesla encounter a misstep and goes bankrupt, it'll probably take us decades to have another go at a decent EV company. GM for sure will revert back to her old ways of doing things...
Patents help, but they don't tell you how to manufacture it!
Often the secret is in how to make it, cheaply but with quality.
Bte LA Times had an article stating that theyre having trouble making the 100kw packs at their new battery factory.