On 25 Jul 2020 at 4:04, Peri Hartman via EV wrote: > I want a cheaper Tesla, too. But I think Willie is right. If Tesla had > tried to make a cheap model sooner, they would have only sold a trickle.
That's probably true in the US, where small cars sell in small numbers. But I wonder what would have happened if they'd been ready to go nose to nose with the Renault Zoe in 2012 or the VW E-Golf in 2015. Neither car was especially impressive in its early incarnations, and I think Tesla could have cleaned their clocks.. But at the time, all Tesla had to offer was the very large and expensive Model S. Then as now, it barely registered on Europe's EV sales charts. In the meantime, Renault and VW haven't sat on their hands. The updated Zoe and the upcoming VW ID.3 are competent and attractive EVs with plenty of range. The Zoe offers 80% of the Model 3 LR's range at 43% of its EU price - 29% of it if you're willing to lease the battery! And it fits in more of the tiny European garages and parking spaces than the Tesla does. The mainstream EU automakers have a big head start in EVs suited to their own market, and more competitors are moving in. It's going to be tougher for Tesla to catch up now than it would have been 5 years ago. Meanwhile, China has a huge appetite for small cheap EVs, and so far Tesla has nothing to feed it. I don't think that Tesla will ever have the EV market share in Asia and Europe that it has in North America. But a smaller, more affordable Tesla will certainly help in both places, especially if they can get it on the ground quickly and also give it the polish and refinement they show in their other cars. It will be interesting to see if they can do that with Chinese design and manufacturing. David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = If all our bicycles turn into cars, that's a horrible figure. It would scare the world. -- Zhai Guangming, China National Petroleum Corporation = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
