Thread: Tesla
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Old 09-06-2013, 01:13 AM   #34 (permalink)
NachtRitter
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cbaber View Post
There should really be a disclaimer attached every time someone says the Tesla S is the safest car ever made. Yes, indeed, it achieved the highest rating ever (*gets really quiet and speaks rather quickly*) of any car tested. To be completely fair, and to bring everything into perspective, high end cars are not crash tested like the normal cars. You won't find crash test data for most Ferrari's, or many of the Tesla S competitors like Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc. There are many reasons, one being they are really expensive to destroy and test. I won't go into that debate, but I just wanted to be fair.
True, but they do kinda raise the bar then, don't they? I mean, if a dinky little company that is planning to build 22,000 units this year can crash test a car that they sell for about $70,000, why couldn't a company like Volkswagen Group crash test the Audi A8 which also sells for about $70,000? Granted, they have more models to test, but they sold over 9 million vehicles in 2012, of which nearly 36,000 were A8s. (From Audi A8 Production Numbers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Quote:
Originally Posted by cbaber View Post
Another point is how the company and sales will be effected when the state and federal government stop subsidizing the purchases. With all the taxpayer money pouring into their accounts it's pretty easy to be optimistic, but when the price goes up $7500 will that effect sales? Also you have half of the companies sales taking place in one state. The majority taking place on one side of the country. I'm not saying Telsa is bound to fail, or we shouldn't be optimistic, but all the media saying that Tesla will topple GM and Ford is just really hyped up commentary. We haven't seen enough to judge their long term profitability, or to call Telsa the Apple of the car world.
Ya, that will be interesting to see. My own impression is that even if the EV subsidy goes away, the Tesla S will be attractive since it competes well with luxury cars in the same (non-subsidized) price range (with the exception of the ability to drive across the country, of course). The real challenge will be when the big auto makers release luxury hybrids or EVs which target the same affluent "green" consumers (ya, that's probably an oxymoron -> "green consumers"), like the BMW i8 hybrid (slated for 2014 deliveries at a price of ~$120,000+ according to BMW i8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

I also agree that anyone saying that Tesla will topple one of the Big Three (err, Big Two?) is getting ahead of themselves... Tesla needs some time before anybody can make that kind of a call. Yes, Tesla is building about the same number of Model S sedans as BMW is building the 6-series sedans (around 22,000 for 2013, according to A Guide to Determining Tesla's Production Numbers), but that is still a tiny fraction compared to what BMW builds overall per year (~1.5 million).
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