Re:Tesla Gets Crushed in Germany by EVs from Volkswagen, Ren...
by p_l on Thursday August 13, 2020 @11:24AM
(#24144309)
A big summary is that:
- Teslas are expensive
A Tesla is going to be in the upper-end of the price range for most people, and in fact a lot of the time they were status symbols in the sense of how rare they are.
In fact, I have just checked used cars, got surprised to see 86 Teslas on sale of all kinds in Poland, lots of kilometers driven... and prices that I can buy a plane or helicopter for.
- Tesla has ridiculously low build quality
This goes hand in hand with the price, except the build quality is worse than low-end of the price range. Things that I've seen people in the USA somehow accept (parking cameras failing on newly bought car, involving voodoo rituals for resets) would lead to the car getting returned and with request for full refund. Better not to mention the tone of any "user's review" that would follow.
- There's no bonus in the form of build-out supercharger network
While there are superchargers in Europe, as far as I know the network is quite sparse in comparison with USA, electricity is not necessarily cheap, and many (something that all BEVs deal with) there are issues with charging your car if you live in a city.
- shorter-distance BEV are more acceptable, especially as "city car"
This is big, because it means that smaller cars with smaller batteries (and let's be honest, the "secret sauce" of Tesla is their battery supply chain) are not as much of a problem as in USA. Combined with with (lack of) availability of charging stations, this meant that a lot of earlier BEV purchases went towards "fleet buy", at least locally in Poland. As an organization, it was much easier to arrange charging in parking space etc.
Such fleet buys, some with "rent-a-car" setup where you can pickup a car a bit like you'd pickup an electric scooter, helped "prepare the land".
- Tesla cars were made for USA roads
A bit of beaten horse, but there's noticeable difference in how wide the roads are, parking space availability, etc.
While modern USA sedans and so on aren't gigantic like old full frame cars, American cars are still noticeably bigger. US brands selling in Europe tend to sell models adapted for Europe.
- Servicing.
Even in USA servicing Tesla cars is full of horror stories. While in the western Europe there's less focus on smaller car service companies, the availability and cost of parts are probably just as noticeable.
- The big Tesla sales were subsidized
I remember how last year everyone on HN was crowing about Tesla being most popular new car brand in, if I recall correctly, Netherlands.
Barely anyone noticed the part where the BEV purchases were driven by ending of package of tax rebates and subsidies for buying a new BEV car, which ended because the BEV market was "coming together". And Tesla simply had brand recognition for electric car and availability.
(and last, but definitely not least)
- Volkswagen et al had been making slow and steady progress towards BEV offensive
Meanwhile, European (and not only) car manufacturers were slowly ramping up capability on BEV front, with 2019 marking huge marketing campaign from Volkswagen bringing, excuse me, "BEV to the masses". We're talking huge manufacturing capacity that turns like a supertanker, but it can probably outproduce Tesla ten times over, switching tracks to BEV as a whole.
And that shift in manufacturing is slowly starting to hit general population. Electric cars are moving away from curios, slowly shifting to mainstream.
- Teslas are expensive
A Tesla is going to be in the upper-end of the price range for most people, and in fact a lot of the time they were status symbols in the sense of how rare they are.
In fact, I have just checked used cars, got surprised to see 86 Teslas on sale of all kinds in Poland, lots of kilometers driven... and prices that I can buy a plane or helicopter for.
- Tesla has ridiculously low build quality
This goes hand in hand with the price, except the build quality is worse than low-end of the price range. Things that I've seen people in the USA somehow accept (parking cameras failing on newly bought car, involving voodoo rituals for resets) would lead to the car getting returned and with request for full refund. Better not to mention the tone of any "user's review" that would follow.
- There's no bonus in the form of build-out supercharger network
While there are superchargers in Europe, as far as I know the network is quite sparse in comparison with USA, electricity is not necessarily cheap, and many (something that all BEVs deal with) there are issues with charging your car if you live in a city.
- shorter-distance BEV are more acceptable, especially as "city car"
This is big, because it means that smaller cars with smaller batteries (and let's be honest, the "secret sauce" of Tesla is their battery supply chain) are not as much of a problem as in USA. Combined with with (lack of) availability of charging stations, this meant that a lot of earlier BEV purchases went towards "fleet buy", at least locally in Poland. As an organization, it was much easier to arrange charging in parking space etc.
Such fleet buys, some with "rent-a-car" setup where you can pickup a car a bit like you'd pickup an electric scooter, helped "prepare the land".
- Tesla cars were made for USA roads
A bit of beaten horse, but there's noticeable difference in how wide the roads are, parking space availability, etc.
While modern USA sedans and so on aren't gigantic like old full frame cars, American cars are still noticeably bigger. US brands selling in Europe tend to sell models adapted for Europe.
- Servicing.
Even in USA servicing Tesla cars is full of horror stories. While in the western Europe there's less focus on smaller car service companies, the availability and cost of parts are probably just as noticeable.
- The big Tesla sales were subsidized
I remember how last year everyone on HN was crowing about Tesla being most popular new car brand in, if I recall correctly, Netherlands.
Barely anyone noticed the part where the BEV purchases were driven by ending of package of tax rebates and subsidies for buying a new BEV car, which ended because the BEV market was "coming together". And Tesla simply had brand recognition for electric car and availability.
(and last, but definitely not least) - Volkswagen et al had been making slow and steady progress towards BEV offensive
Meanwhile, European (and not only) car manufacturers were slowly ramping up capability on BEV front, with 2019 marking huge marketing campaign from Volkswagen bringing, excuse me, "BEV to the masses". We're talking huge manufacturing capacity that turns like a supertanker, but it can probably outproduce Tesla ten times over, switching tracks to BEV as a whole.
And that shift in manufacturing is slowly starting to hit general population. Electric cars are moving away from curios, slowly shifting to mainstream.