Why Europe doesn't have a Tesla

1 points | by nielsole 2 hours ago

4 comments

  • eucryphia 12 minutes ago

    The US Innovates The CCP confiscates The EU regulates

  • beardyw 39 minutes ago

    Feels like a pointless rant. Now retired, I have been laid off 3 times in my career and the UK mandated employer support I got was very important to me with a family to support and a mortgage to pay. Am I to compare that to not having a "Tesla"?

  • nielsole an hour ago

    I found it worth a read even though I am pretty familiar with the German labour laws generally.

  • ben_w 30 minutes ago

    > Tesla is now worth more than the next nine largest carmakers in the world put together.

    By market cap; actual sales, they're not even close to that.

    There's lessons to learn, sure, but when it comes to manufacturing and price/performance the positive lessons are from China, not the US.

    Rank them by vehicle count? Not even in the top 15: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automotive_manufacture...

    Rank by revenue? Tesla's 11th: https://companiesmarketcap.com/automakers/largest-automakers...

    IMO, which of revenue and vehicle count is most important depends on if you're a customer or an investor. If you're looking at market cap, you're clearly an investor.

    The lesson we (not just here in Europe, everywhere) should from Tesla is a negative one, given the P/E ratio and the long history of unmet promises, e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_predictions_for_autono...

    I wouldn't be surprised if educational materials 20-30 years from now name certain financial arrangements a "Musk scheme". Making more money from selling shares than the company makes from selling products is not a crime, but it is also not something that nations should seek to replicate.

    > In October 2018, its new CEO Herbert Diess predicted that by 2020 the company would produce electric vehicles that ‘can do everything like Tesla and are half the price’. The vehicle to meet this ambition was the ID.3, so named as it would mark a symbolic ‘third era’ for the brand, after the Beetle and the Golf. Volkswagen threw $50 billion at its electric car line-up, making them some of the most costly cars in history, Unfortunately, it failed again.

    Despite the flaws, the car did actually launch in 2020 with an after-subsidy cost of under 30k: https://www.electrive.com/2020/06/17/vw-id-3-1st-edition-to-...

    I think is valid to talk of after-subsidy prices given how much Tesla in that era was quoting after-subsidy prices, though you may disagree: https://web.archive.org/web/20221205200727/https://www.forbe...

    If this is unacceptable, the pre-subsidy, just-over-30k price was available 21 January 2021, which is much closer to target than, say, Cybertruck: https://www.electrive.net/2021/01/21/vw-id-3-verkauf-mit-kle...

    For comparison, Cybertruck was announced in November 2019 for late 2021/2022 depending on model; actually began deliveries 1, 2, and 4 years later than announced depending on model; and was about 40-60% more expensive depending on model; and is infamously poor quality. Some news from the time of release, with juicy quotes that didn't age well given all the issues the vehicle had:

      "Launching Cybertruck is important for the broader Tesla growth story over the coming years and also will prove to the doubters that Musk can successfully expand the Tesla halo effect as more consumers head down the [electric vehicle] path over the coming years," Dan Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, said in a report.
    
    - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-cybertruck-cost-release-d...