Why Tesla Soared as Other Automakers Struggled to Make Cars

[Zorro]

The yawning disparity between the performance of the electric car company and established automakers last year reflects the technological change roiling the industry.

For much of last year, established automakers like General Motors and Ford Motor operated in a different reality from Tesla, the electric car company.

G.M. and Ford closed one factory after another — sometimes for months on end — because of a shortage of computer chips, leaving dealer lots bare and sending car prices zooming. Yet Tesla racked up record sales quarter after quarter and ended the year having sold nearly twice as many vehicles as it did in 2020 unhindered by an industrywide crisis.

Tesla’s ability to conjure up critical components has a greater significance than one year’s car sales. It suggests that the company, and possibly other young electric car businesses, could threaten the dominance of giants like Volkswagen and G.M. sooner and more forcefully than most industry executives and policymakers realize. That would help the effort to reduce the emissions that are causing climate change by displacing more gasoline-powered cars sooner. But it could hurt the millions of workers, thousands of suppliers and numerous local and national governments that rely on traditional auto production for jobs, business and tax revenue.

Tesla and its enigmatic chief executive, Elon Musk, have said little about how the carmaker ran circles around the rest of the auto industry. Now it’s becoming clear that the company simply had a superior command of technology and its own supply chain. Tesla appeared to better forecast demand than businesses that produce many more cars than it does. Other automakers were surprised by how quickly the car market recovered from a steep drop early in the pandemic and had simply not ordered enough chips and parts fast enough.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/business/teslas-computer-chips-supply-chain.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhkSVUbCybfQMMmqBCdnr_Tzac4j2S7Jy-QUStewv5QCIiB41yIfrd7f98imj-bTd5Hdr8zQfg4hsluA3tQcSj66J2VhMZCZCwvtYO4Wm5xj8iQU7k0rWevNTK0eKIizrTg-hvcaDT1UKPU130icV1hqcFkZkjqjSJTvtrNGuV229F_2_0zVNstFXpbOn7877S_AA5-Od6Gchjf9gA9PuhZUjzRltWdgKkSJEQQURmVCSMivhtvrY9UK9gVP63gLhY_e8CYgL4ZD2VgL4rBFITEQ6DAnLe9h9SjTaiOUphz&smid=url-share

[Alexander Of Assyria]

1. He made his own spaceship. Eom

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Remind me again how economical a Tesla is?

Around $50k? For an entry-level model, to boot. That's more than twice what I have ever paid for a new car. And since I reverted to buying good, late model used cars, an even higher multiple.

Plus, I'm someone who makes long distance drives often enough that the limited range and charging times are an issue. And no, I'm not going to have two cars: one for in-city driving and one for long trips. That's stupid, at least for someone of my economic means.

[brooklynite]

5. I spent $38,000 for a Volkswagen GTI

Turbo engine, all the driver assist features (including self parking) and a sunroof. There will always be a market for higher performance and feature rich vehicles, just as there'll always be a market for top of the line iPhones despite the availability of cheaper Androids.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

6. The Model 3 extended range in my garage has a 353 mile range. Probably 300 miles realistically.

That’s what? 5 hours of driving? And then 15 minutes at a Tesla charging station to get another 80% fill up.

So roughly 9 hours of driving with one 15 minute stop. So unless you are Smokey and The Bandit trying to get from Texarkana to Atlanta in record time, you are probably good.

Never stepping foot in a gas station is a beautiful thing. Not stopping for gas in the cold or on the way to work or on the way home from work is a beautiful thing.

I charge in my garage from 0 to 100% in 10 hours over night on a 40 amp breaker (30 amp draw).

Yeah $50,000 sounds like a lot… Until you look at the prices of other new cars.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. I drive a 2017 Honda Fit I bought in 2018.

It was a fuck of a lot less than $50,000. Oh, and most Teslas are a lot more than that. And to say I need to look at the prices of other new cars, well, a lot of cars really do cost less than that.

I have never understood paying vast sums of money for a car. My very first car, a 1958 VW Bug convertible that I purchased in 1966, cost me $150.00. I needed to get a loan from my credit union, but it was paid off in about a year. That was the only car loan I ever had. Every other car I've bought was paid for in cash.

The amount of debt people are willing to go into for a car is truly scary. I've always considered a car to be something on four wheels that gets you from place to place, not an ego booster.

[tinrobot]

7. Teslas certanly are expensive, but not all EVs are quite that expensive.

And prices are coming down quickly. There are quite a few EVs less than $30K after incentives with 200-300 mile ranges.

As for charging, it's not that difficult. I'm setting off on a 600+ mile road trip tomorrow in my EV. I figure with charging, it'll add a little over an hour on top of the 10 hour drive. Not too bad, and I won't be spending $75-100 every time I fill the tank.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. I'm not willing to pay "even less than $30k" unless that less than

is in the $20k range.

As for 200-300 mile ranges, that's absurd. I regularly drive from Santa Fe to Overland Park, KS, which is about 750 miles. So, 200 miles, then recharge, another 200 miles, another recharge. How long do the recharges take? Once a recharge takes as long as a gas tank refill, I'll be willing to consider it. Oh, and my Honda Fit does not cost $75-100 every time to fill the tank. Dear lord, what kind of a vehicle incurs that sort of cost, and how many gallons per mile does it get?

[WarGamer]

3. The problem is with companies like Ford.

In 2001 I bought a new Ford Focus for my wife. She put on maybe 80k miles over 5-6 years then we put it aside for my teenage son for his first car...

So fast forward a couple years and I'd take the Focus out maybe once a week to grab something from the store or to run an errand... whatever.

In 2008 with around 83k miles, I took the Focus out for a spin, took it through the car wash and driving home the engine blew. Sudden BANG, loss of power and big white cloud.

Got it home and did an "autopsy" because I've been a car guy all my life.

Sure enough, hole in the block and pulled the head and the #3 piston was literally gone.

The valve seats had fallen out onto the top of the piston while the engine was running = boom.

So I start researching... and VOILA it's a known problem with that engine. And Ford had done precisely SHIT about it. No recalls, no nothing. On a known problem. So I donated the dead car to an org that picked it up. A 7 year old disposable car.

That engine was in such high demand (from others who blew them up) that the used engine shops were asking way too much $$ for people who wanted to replace those that blew up.

Make no mistake... ANY car (after the early 90's) that can't run 100k miles without major failure is a problem.

I'd previously owned a 93 Civic that I know for a fact was running with 200k+ miles

My wife today has a Prius with 250k+ miles that she uses as a Pharma Rep.

So NO I will never buy a Ford because the company has a history of not standing by their products.

I'll stick with German and Japanese cars.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Thank you for that post.

I have never owned an American car. The lack of reliability and dependability with them has always been huge, in my opinion.

[brush]

4. One reason is electric cars have much fewer moving parts...

so it was easier for Tesla in terms of parts supplies.

[PortTack]

8. I hope ford or some other American car company gives him some stiff competition

That guy is full of himself!

Plus the Tesla 3 and others continue to have problems. The most recent recall for “technical problems” was almost a half a million