I’ve seen an interview of him talking about stepping down from Tesla.
Honestly it’s needed. Tesla needs a significant jump in sales in the next few years. I don’t think the Model 3 will keep them rockin’.
Yea, we’ll see. If the model 3 doesn’t take off Tesla is pretty screwed. They’re really relying on it to be their bread and butter.
Nah - they’re just sell more equity lol.
That’s the new S&P 500 rule… no profit? Soaring stock!
hah. As long as I get my Model 3 before they tank 
jk. Honestly, I think in 4-5 years all companies will catch up with electric cars, but I’d like to get one a lot sooner than that. It’ll be up to Tesla to keep their lead.
I have to say, all these established companies cannot come with a product that could compete well with Tesla? Its like there is some interest in seeing electric cars not become mainstream. Not raising conspiracy theories but i just find it weird to see Tesla have a higher market cap than GM.
Yea for the life of me, I don’t understand. There’s definitely a market for it, Tesla has proven that. Chevy has the tech for a 240 mile range. Literally all they have to do is release a nice sporty car with the same range as the Bolt with some luxury features for under 30k and Tesla would lose a huge chunk of their potential customers. I could also see someone like Ford releasing an electric Mustang to take a big market share also. I’ve heard a lot of conspiracy theories, but none of them explain why all car companies are trying to destroy themselves.
They already produce millions of cars, so it has to be a gradual switch to electric for them, while Tesla started from 0 cars.
The charging infrastructure is critical for EVs with limited range (less than 300, my opinion). As well as how quick you can charge. Not many think about that before buying an EV. GM has potential, they just aren’t motivated enough to towards EV.
I am curious to know how much money Tesla has invested in the supercharging infrastructure.
I’m not saying other car companies need to complete ditch gas powered cars and go fully electric, but that doesn’t mean they can’t release 1 or 2 electric cars that actually look good. So far we’ve got cars like the i3, Bolt and Leaf… I just don’t understand why they all have to look like little bubbles.
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Normal looking electric car trend has started, take a look at Ioniq Electric, looks pretty much like normal car (like Elantra). Hoping other car makers comes up with a normal looking electric and not wierd looking ones like leaf and I3.
Because they are supposed to be city/commuter cars due to their limited range, to start with?
the Volt has come a long way since the first release and actually looks nice. My take would be that the bubbly look is somehow supposed to match the futuristic shapes
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Well to be accurate we also got several EVs that are identical to their gasoline powered cousins- RAV4, e-Golf, Focus electric, Soul EV, and Fit EV just to name a few.
It is true that the dedicated EV platforms have tended to look different. All of the dedicated EV cars from the mainstream makers are small cars. They have all tried to utilize the advantages of EV architecture to create maximum interior space in a small form factor. All of the shapes are heavily influenced by the need to be as aerodynamic as possible. Turns out bubbles work best for that equation.
It will be interesting to see where things go from here. And certainly everyone is gong to watch the Model 3 to see how it sells. It is jumping into a market that is increasingly SUV and crossover heavy and if it decimates sales of things like the BMW 3 series, Mercedes C class and the Audi A4 that will be a big, big problem for the makers of entry level luxury sport sedans.
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I evacuated Houston during hurricane Rita and gas stations literally ran out of gas. Power was still working just fine…
Also if the power grid fails, cars are usually going to be the least of our concerns!
that link has another link to a blog post: https://teslaowner.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/battery-swap/
Your travel plans need to be a true round trip. Your need to return to the same location to pick up your battery.
another consideration: you purchase a tesla sans battery and get free swaps for xxx days. the swap is automated and takes a few minutes. i would guess that with some engineering, the swap could be seconds instead of minutes, like an RC car.
the article you linked to mentions concern about the battery quality. i would say no one wants to own their battery if they dont have to pay for it up front. and no one wants to worry about the battery life. if tesla has a fleet of batteries, they can easily identify bad batteries and take them out of circulation.
if for example, you have a taxi, this technology would be huge because 30 minutes to charge is lost income. commuting from LA to SF for example, stopping twice to recharge adds an hour. it defeats the purpose of driving 90 mph on the 5.
instead of crushing a car with a bad battery, this solution is much more eco-friendly. especially once tesla owners are faced with buying a new battery or joining a swap service.
better places tries that.
Good for them. Car looks great for an entry level electric. The interior it looks like it will take some time to get used to but truly a step forward. Other manufacturers have a lot to catch up. I mean compare this to the Bolt. Like comparing Model T to horse and carriage. (You can quote me on that)
haha… I know it’ll piss off the Chevy fans out there quite a bit, but I feel that same way. I’m still pretty nervous about the look and functionality of the dash though. I’m really hoping it’ll be nice and hope the speedometer won’t be annoying.
I think you and ng0 are talking about two different things. He is saying a good looking normal car, you just normal car. I absolutely love my Spark Ev, yes it looks almost identical to ICE Spark, but it doesn’t make it look good 
I suspect that is the reason why so many people put down deposits on the Model 3, it’s the looks, or hopeful looks.