nberry:

I'm not a fan of Musk but why the animus against a US car manufacturer (Tesla) by the Europeans? Tesla is not a big seller in Europe and never was intended for now to be. Yet, I read post that are salivating on the prospect of Tesla failing.  I don't get it.yes

 

Nick, step back couple steps. Disregard Tesla is an American car maker.

Now look at the interior fit and finish, look at the exterior fit and finish, and then look at the price they are charging.

It is, and always the same knock on American made cars. The finishing is simply not up to par. Even Hyundai are finished better. That's embarrassing.

Yes I know the 'performance' is there, most famous American made cars are great straight line cars, but Europeans, actually even RoW, value handling more so than straight line. Straight line performance mostly is an American metric, with the national obsession with drag racing.

Tesla by itself is a pretty good car, it doesn't need Elon's tweet or speech or whatever, those simply made it worse. IF from tomorrow onwards, Elon STFU, never to say a word in public again, let the car sell itself. The combination of not going to the gas pump, (I wouldn't call it gasoline-less, as electricity mostly are still being produced by burning fossil fuel), serious straight line performance, great packaging for the people package, the car would still sell itself. People are not THAT stupid, they will discover stuff by themselves. The down side of that would be they may not so quickly, and by the same token, Elon NEEDED to say something to prop up the stock price as Tesla has major monetary obligation that needed a high stock price. That's what put a lot of people off, they see the scam. By by not growing so quickly, they will be standing on more solid ground for future growth and not rely on borderline illegal tactics to prop up stock prices. 

I don't see an end to EV cars, they will be a staying thing. There are enough people that needs a EV car to make that segment permanent. Tesla, despite all the criticism, jump started the cycle. But perhaps a bit too soon, as the technology is not quite catching up yet, but it will. The middle step would have been hybrids, the bridge product between relying on gas pump only and not relying on it completely. Elon tried to kill that in one go, he failed. 


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