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this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
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Fuck Cars
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Extra frustrating because even though Musk is associated wholesale with Tesla, he is not actually a founder.
Yet another example of the rich running shit into the ground with poor decisions.
As much as I think musk is an asshole he did put his money where his mouth is in Tesla which notably almost went bankrupt twice. The reality is that Elon distaste matters orders of magnitude less to buyers than value. I mean people hate Walmart and yet they make a ton of money. Other manufacturers cannot make profitable cars at the price point Tesla is offering. Tesla is going to end up the largest car manufacturer in the world. On Twitter yeah he is running it into the ground arguably on purpose but on Tesla and space x he is doing pretty good. I don't understand what people taking this angle think the founder would have done better. The founder would have just gone bankrupt with Tesla or sold to someone else.
I would also add that people don't deal with Elon when buying a Tesla, but they do have to deal with shitty dealers when buying another brand.
Most people are just going to buy the car that is the best value with the least effort.
I'm not gonna defend the state of the dealership system, but from what I hear, getting Teslas fixed is awful in unique ways.
They're the largest by stock price, but in EVs/year they were surpassed by a chinese company a couple years ago, and both traditional and new companies are closing the gap Tesla got from all the early capital that was dumped into them. They never came close if you include non-electric cars.
There's tons of electric cars at the price point Tesla offers, with a fraction of the issues. One thing I did notice is other companies limit what they're willing to import into the US to avoid competing with more expensive models (eg, no company imports cheap electric convertibles or station wagon because they'd compete with higher-end electric cars and SUVs/pickups respectively), but I'm not aware of any market segment that doesn't have a competitive non-tesla equivalent.
Awhile ago, someone counted the number of local news stories of people getting immolated by their Teslas. It was more per car sold than the Ford Pinto.
Between:
spoiler
Locking the person in when power fails
Wompy Wheels
Steering wheel come off while you are driving
Tesla's tendency to drive into the back of stopped emergency vehicles or stop on highways due to changing light conditions
The trunk
$500 door handles with 10 dollars worth of electronics that fail due to moisture and ice (this one was improved. They're still $500 though)
The car lying about its range
Shoddy build quality
A dozen other issues I hear from Tesla owners
The only way I can understand Tesla not being as big of a joke as the Ford Pinto is some combination of outlets that would amplify these stories to become national news also tend to own stock in the largest car company, and Tesla having a team that's 10x better than Ford's at shutting down negative publicity.
The difference to Walmart is that there are alternatives, especially these days, to Tesla. Walmart on the other hand is known to push out smaller retailers in the town they settle into. The option for people can be really slim regardless if you like them or not.
Not to mention you have to consider demographics. Walmart is a value brand. When it edges out the local businesses, they get de-facto monopoly. There's no where else to go if you can't shop the higher retailers. Tesla had first-mover advantage with the flashy claims and making an EV not look like a Dustbuster. They ran out the goodwill and runway and they will get eaten alive by the seasoned manufacturers. They will have their segment of the market but you'll more likely see the same brands convert people from petrol to EV or H2 if white hydrogen is actually a thing.
From what i know tesla was first really profitable from cars (not investors) in 2020 and elon gave himself a bonus with like 50x value from all the profits (my source is the youtuber thunderf00t).
And if i heard it correctly tesla cars are overpriced compared to the competitors and none is on place one when it comes to the stats.
But to simply buy a tesla is as easy as simply buying the most advertised bs like nestle products.
And to the spaceX thing: they get their money mostly from having launch platforms and overpricing it there, the malket there only could be dominated because of investor money. (no source)
The satelite internet drains more money (with US GOV tax funds, no source) than it generates value outside of specific use cases. (partially thunderf00t)
Another thing (i dont know if it is true) that tesla and spacex are doing better since elon is occupied with twitter