Quote:
Originally Posted by F32Fleet
Tesla investors gave the company the luxury of spending a decade ... Legacy automakers were not given the same even though govts started to throw subsidies at them.
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Investors will give anyone the luxury of any amount of time, i.e., wework, nuff said. Second, legacy automakers, especially in America, wouldn't exist without subsidies and bailouts (us taxpayers still $10B in the hole) and Germany has never been shy supporting their industry with subsidies (and let's not forget about America rebuilding German industry in 50s-70s). Finally, I bet horse salesmen were pretty pissed when Ike built the US highway system with taxpayer money (not to mention the oil industry which the US military secures, and all the tax subsidies). Everyone gets subsidies and investor cash - it's not like Spartanburg is billing BMW rack-rate taxes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dog Face Pony Soldier
My point is there's a long list of aspects of a vehicle that are completely agnostic to how it is powered. BMW has decades of experience in all of these. .... traditional aspects like ride quality and accoutrements are important to consumers. ...consumers are mature in evaluating these traditional traits and have established expectations. The big boys appear to be getting serious about developing PHEV. Tesla better pedal harder.
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This 100% RIGHT NOW. BMW fucked up major with their "i" brand and abandoning e-vehicles when they had
THE major brand lead. That was BMW's window to take it all, but they went squirrly probably because of
the Innovator's Dilemma ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by KRS_SN
Big boys come in when there is profit and take things onwards.
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Historically that almost never happens:
* Apple killed the big boys: nokia, ericksson, blackberry, microsoft, etc, but Apple shouldn't have been able to because they didn't know phone hardware or cellular networks
* Netflix killed the big boys: Blockbuster & every video rental chain, but Netflix shouldn't have been able to because they didn't know media, hollywood, distribution, etc
* Amazon killed the big boys: Target corp, Walmart, etc but they shouldn't have been able to because they didn't know distribution logistics, global-scale buying, etc
In every case what happens is the upstart is unencumbered by legacy organizational structures with built-in innovation barriers (big profit centers have the power, new divisions get crushed) - it's called
The Innovators Dilemma and there are a ton of examples.
In this case, Tesla is innovating on software, user UI, power systems, manufacturing, etc and creating new technologies in assembly, batteries, etc that enable proprietary vertical integration drastically reducing costs (and with patented machines competitors can't have). In short, they're on the path to create a new customer experience at performance levels higher than any competitor for cost levels far below any competitor. In 2-3 years their manufacturing capabilities will be without peer and so far ahead they'll be untouchable.
It's exactly what happened with Amazon distribution logistics - you'd think Target or Walmart, who'd built massive global-scale distribution networks and know-how over decades would be unassailable, yet Amazon killed them in less than 10 years.
Tesla's weakness is their interiors *for us*, i.e., we're a market niche and clearly there are plenty of people who aren't as concerned as us about that ... but that's today. What a majority of customers will expect from a driver experience in 10 years is unknown, but what we do know is, it won't be what we like today.
Near as I can tell, the Macan S is the last lux vehicle with analog gauges, a movable shifter, buttons and knobs, etc - and 2021 is the last year.
The future will favor whomever gets the new expectations right first and Tesla is as much in that race as anyone.