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Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by threeseed on Thursday April 25, 2019 @06:08AM (#19746564)
Ordinary people aren't buying cars today based purely on MPG so why do people think range, battery efficiency etc is going to be a primary reason in future ?

It's far more likely to be just one of many factors. And Tesla really isn't great in many of them e.g. interior design, build quality, easy of service, product availability, brand cachet, etc. And now they have to worry if Tesla will even be around in 5-10 years.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by sliken on Thursday April 25, 2019 @06:38AM (#19746704)
Agreed. But Tesla IS doing really well on what consumers care about. Search for "Tesla owners are more satisfied than any other auto brand's, according to Consumer Reports" or similar articles.

Especially for first time electric car buyers, they really do seem rather worried about moving from a 488 mile range (like a honda accord) to a 240-370 mile range (Tesla). I suspect mostly because they haven't internalized the impact of being able to start each day with a full "tank".

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by threeseed on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:06AM (#19746854)
That report does not measure what consumers care about. It simply measures what Tesla owners think. And those owners tend to come from a very narrow demographic which is unrepresentative of the general public.

And yes people are worried about the difference in range given it's a new technology. But no evidence it significantly influences purchasing decisions especially given that most people aren't driving hundreds of miles in a day.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by sliken on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:17AM (#19746907)
I agree, but it's not such a narrow demographic. 63,000 bought them in Q1. The mode similar luxury/premium car I can find is the BMW 3 series. BMW sold 8,225 of them in Q1.

So almost 8x as many people bought a model 3 for similar or higher prices than the BMW 3 series. In fact at various time periods Tesla was outselling the sum of all similar premium cars in the USA from BMW, MB, Audi, and Lexus.

So sure Tesla owners are a self selecting set, but there's apparently quite a few people that want the model 3.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by matwood on Thursday April 25, 2019 @08:18AM (#19747250)
> But Tesla IS doing really well on what consumers care about. Search for "Tesla owners are more satisfied than any other auto brand's, according to Consumer Reports" or similar articles.

How much of this is due to many of the buyers were fans where Tesla could do not wrong? I know one of those people.

I also know someone who bought a TSLA recently. He likes the car, but hates dealing with TSLA the company. Incompetent was the word used.