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Tesla produces its millionth car

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting a lot of flak but this was my reaction too. The mistake was comparing it to the leaf instead of all cars the company produced and confronting the futurist hype train head-on. This is 2020, a million cars isn't impressive. Fuel efficient hybrids have done more to help the climate than Tesla has. Just look at Europe, electric cars are so practical and efficient that countries are working to ban their com…

Tesla basically created the electric car sector. Almost every major car company has or will have an electric out in order to compete.

Whoever invented lithium batteries created the electric car sector (In fact he won a Nobel prize for it, https://news.uchicago.edu/story/john-b-goodenough-shares-nob...). Everything else has existed since the 1800s (although it has been refined over time). There were even attempts at electric cars in the 1800s. In fact, almost 40% of all cars in 1900 were electric! If they had lithium batteries in 1890 we would have been driving electric cars for the last 130 years.

GM had a great electric car in the mid 90s that couldn't compete due to lead acid batteries being heavy and having poor energy density (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1). Put Lithium batteries in an EV1 and people still wouldn't have wanted it because oil prices were low, but it beat the Model S to market by nearly 20 years and again given a better battery technology like lithium would probably have led to a majority of cars being electric today.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're getting a lot of flak but this was my reaction too. The mistake was comparing it to the leaf instead of all cars the company produced and confronting the futurist hype train head-on. This is 2020, a million cars isn't impressive. Fuel efficient hybrids have done more to help the climate than Tesla has. Just look at Europe, electric cars are so practical and efficient that countries are working to ban their com…

Tesla basically created the electric car sector. Almost every major car company has or will have an electric out in order to compete.

None of that addresses my points. Electric cars haven't escaped being toys for rich people, if they had you wouldn't be seeing Europe and California talking about the need to protect electric cars via legislation. On the other front, increasingly efficient ICE engine designs have done far more to reduce emissions in the present.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#53

It's great what tesla has done to push electric vehicles to the point of a status symbol, and prove their viability as an every day driving car. Tesla is a remarkable company, but they are terrible at building and delivering cars, which is very much the primary competence needed to succeed as a company that sells cars. Their production rates have dramatically trailed their promises, and while they are valued at aroun…

> I think if I had to make a guess, Tesla will be in the same chapter in the history of cars as DeLorian and Duesenberg. I don't actually know what chapter that would be. Delorean was around for 3 years, and made ~9000 cars. Duesenberg (of which I had never heard) made race cars, somewhere under 1000... There really isn't a good comparison to be made with Tesla.

I picked Duesenberg because in their day they had about the same market share that Tesla has today.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think if I had to make a guess, Tesla will be in the same chapter in the history of cars as DeLorian and Duesenberg. I don't actually know what chapter that would be. Delorean was around for 3 years, and made ~9000 cars. Duesenberg (of which I had never heard) made race cars, somewhere under 1000... There really isn't a good comparison to be made with Tesla.

I picked Duesenberg because in their day they had about the same market share that Tesla has today.

Duesenberg was a race & luxury car manufacturer, and their heyday was in the roaring twenties. A lot has changed in 100 years.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#55

Tesla should now focus on a mass market electric vehicle to take the climate crisis- something like a closed two-wheeler with broad tyres. Good for traffic and temperature controlled too. Chinese people would buy it in droves.

I have seen some tiny single seater electric "cars" around recently. They are kind of like your regular mobility scooter but with a roof and windows. I saw a short mention of these about to be trialed somewhere in Europe which would allow children to drive them around since they have the same top speed as ebikes which kids are also allowed to use.

Seems like a good idea tbh. Kids largely get locked out of the outside world due to car centric design. This seems like a pretty good solution which is no less safe than cycling. Maybe even more safe since its more visible.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article claims Tesla is the first to have made 1 million electric vehicles. Is this incorrect?

The way it is stated "No other automaker has achieved that kind of volume when it comes to producing long-range electric passenger cars." gives them some wiggle room in their claim. Still, it is a very impressive feat for an automobile startup.

Ah, I see, it’s the somewhat subjective claim long-range.

You Jamie for pointing that out.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla basically created the electric car sector. Almost every major car company has or will have an electric out in order to compete.

None of that addresses my points. Electric cars haven't escaped being toys for rich people, if they had you wouldn't be seeing Europe and California talking about the need to protect electric cars via legislation. On the other front, increasingly efficient ICE engine designs have done far more to reduce emissions in the present.

This seems like a well reasoned argument.

Have improved emission standards done more to comeback air pollution that Telsa?

I’m no expert, but I’m willing to bet: yes.

Will has improved emission standards always out compete electric vehicles? I’m willing to bet: no.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla basically created the electric car sector. Almost every major car company has or will have an electric out in order to compete.

Whoever invented lithium batteries created the electric car sector (In fact he won a Nobel prize for it, https://news.uchicago.edu/story/john-b-goodenough-shares-nob... ). Everything else has existed since the 1800s (although it has been refined over time). There were even attempts at electric cars in the 1800s. In fact, almost 40% of all cars in 1900 were electric! If they had lithium batteries in 1890 we would have…

Why do designers seem hellbent if making electric cars look strange.

The tide seems to have turned... a bit.

Re: Tesla produces its millionth car

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla basically created the electric car sector. Almost every major car company has or will have an electric out in order to compete.

None of that addresses my points. Electric cars haven't escaped being toys for rich people, if they had you wouldn't be seeing Europe and California talking about the need to protect electric cars via legislation. On the other front, increasingly efficient ICE engine designs have done far more to reduce emissions in the present.

Not sure why that matters.

We definitely want to improve ICE engines too.

With any new technology, the real trick is to produce a marketable product then keep iterating, with customers providing the revenue.

Big LCD TV’s, for example, used to cost over $10,000.

Now that Tesla has proven the product, we are now getting a battery arms race...

Anyway, this is all well known about how technology works... Apple I to iPhone...

Now where are consumer robots?

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