this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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[Dormant] Electric Vehicles
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Make one that's fast, zero to sixty in under 4 seconds and the quarter mile in the mid to low 11s. Instead you get boring that will get mopped by a minivan.
Make something neat, make something someone wants, and make it affordable. Make a cheap crap version for people who are brand loyal or want a cheap ev.
Not everybody needs a sports car. Maybe we should focus on making sensible vehicles for what people actually need, and less on the ability to drive through a building before the operator knows what went wrong.
The thing about sports cars is, it caters to people who LOVE cars, in turn, these people show these cars to others, their families ask the "car guy" what car they should buy and before you know it everyone is buying the non sports version of the sports car brand that the sports car guy liked. That is exactly how Tesla got to where they are. They built an awesome fast "sports" car that people loved and started telling everyone about. I firmly believe if Ford wouldn't have missed the mark on the Mach-E (and made an actually coupe mustang). I think Ford wouldn't be struggling right now. Ford had no electric car catalyst for car bros to tell their grandma and grandpa how awesome Ford electric cars are. They made another boring SUV.
It isn't the 1960s anymore and this isn't how people shop for cars. The advice my family has asked is about EVs because I own one. Nothing at all to do with sports car or not.
Tesla got where they are by screwing customers and relying on other companies not taking safety or financial risks that Elon is more than happy to. And if you look, you'll see that Tesla sales have slumped dramatically as real manufacturers started making cars. None of the Tesla models were sports cars until arguably the model 3, which sold because it was half the price of the model s. You don't seem to fully grasp the industry history here.
Tesla single-handedly changed the perception of EVs in the general public. Before Tesla, EVs were perceived as not much more than glorified golf carts that only vegan tree-hugger die-hard climate activists would even consider driving. The Mitshubishi MI-EV was basically the quintessential example. The Nissan Leaf was a more practical car in many aspects, but it was still in the same vein.
Then Tesla came along and made powerful electric cars that were actually fun to drive. Nowadays it's just expected that an EV is quick, but it could have been very different without Tesla. You have to give them credit here, they basically kicked the whole industry in the nuts and started the inevitable EV transition ~10 years early.
Simping this hard for Tesla at least gets you paid, right? Because doing it for free would be so sad.
You're the one talking about industry history. Tesla is admittedly shit in some areas, as you pointed out, but you have to at least give them credit where they deserve it.
I can give the other automakers credit too: Ford is widely known as the company that invented the assembly line, and Toyota perfected it. They pioneered hybrid cars which is a crucial transition technology. GM has had a weird history with EVs, sometimes being at the forefront, and then infuriatingly taking a step back.
As for being paid, well I do have a bit of stock in some of these companies, but my main investments are elsewhere.
I give Tesla credit for what they did. Bilk state and federal governments out of billions of dollars with various schemes to build a car company that makes chintzy cars and sells them to over extended buyers for top dollar. That is the Tesla success story. They weren't first, or best, but they were able to expand their production based on debt and fraud unlike other players in the space.