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Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#101

Post by rob74 »

bb123 wrote: post #81
nly wrote: post #47

Good. Fewer of these ugly, oversized cars (the model X) on British roads. The damn things have fat arses and I hate driving behind them - they fall in to some kind of uncanny valley size wise. https://d.ibtimes.co.uk/en/full/1605256/tesla-model-x-model-...

Yes, one of the upsides of driving on the left is that it has spared the UK/Australia/Japan from those awful American gas guzzler tanks.

Er... https://www.carscoops.com/2023/04/strong-australian-demand-c...

I guess the limiting factor is more the size of typical parking spaces, garages and so on. But still, there is an undeniable trend of cars getting "fatter" in Europe too. SUVs are currently the best-selling category. Ok, these are more "compact" SUVs rather than the "tank-type" ones, but still bigger (especially higher, which is bad for collisions with pedestrians, most of all children) than other categories.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#102

Post by darreninthenet »

bb123 wrote: post #89
sph wrote: post #8

How is it worth to lose the UK, AU and Japanese market with this move? I'm seeing a lot of Teslas in London, I don't see how eliminating the right-hand configuration is justifiable economically. Yeah it might be a ball ache to design a car that supports both driving styles, but all brands with global reach have to deal with it. The grabbing stick is equivalent to being told "fuck you for living in one of those countr…

I think in the UK and Japan the model S and model X are far too large to ever be big sellers. There are even some bridges in the UK that the model X can’t cross because it is too wide.

Some of the most popular higher end cars on our roads in the UK are Land Rovers and Range Rovers (and similar sized less high end SUVs from Kia etc), all of which are wider than an X.

I've driven some really rural narrow roads in my Range Rover and have never encountered a bridge or road I can't use... would be keen to read a source on that bridges thing as it's completely new to me and is failing my sniff test.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#103

Post by em-bee »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #6

I didn’t realize it was legal to drive left hand drive cars in the UK. Isn’t that generally less safe? I’m really surprised a company this large would end support for the right hand drive configuration.

i believe it was always legal to drive, but you probably could not register a car locally if it wasn't built for the appropriate side. at least in some EU countries this was the case, until the EU decided that this violated the free trade within europe because a car from a left-side country could not be sold to someone wanting to register it in a right-side country.

there was a court-case against poland and lithuania, and according to that, the countries could not prove that traffic safety was affected.

but apparently, it is also no problem to import and register these cars in the US. japan or australia also seem to allow right-side cars with a local registration, so not allowing that seems to be the exception rather than the norm.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#104

Post by alibarber »

bb123 wrote: post #78
masklinn wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Is it really a surprise coming from Musk? 2. Teslas are not built in the UK, between the import duties from brexit and the extra strong recession from brexit, I wouldn’t assume it’s a huge market for tesla 3. Same as japan, where teslas are status symbols for people with a lot of money, they sell low-mid thousands a year, which is less than they sell in Norway (a country with 1/20th the population) in a month. Tha…

This is just plain wrong. Last year Tesla sold 56,000 cars in the UK. That makes it about the same size market as the next three largest European countries combined. Given the doom mongering in the news you’d assume everyone in the UK is foraging in bins for their food, but the reality is there is plenty of people with money.

Unfortunately Brexit means that people can just make up whatever they want to support their narrative, such as these mysterious import duties mentioned here.

Don't get me wrong, I'm as remain as the next guy, but it does get a bit hysterical sometimes.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#105

Post by goodcanadian »

bb123 wrote: post #89
sph wrote: post #8

How is it worth to lose the UK, AU and Japanese market with this move? I'm seeing a lot of Teslas in London, I don't see how eliminating the right-hand configuration is justifiable economically. Yeah it might be a ball ache to design a car that supports both driving styles, but all brands with global reach have to deal with it. The grabbing stick is equivalent to being told "fuck you for living in one of those countr…

I think in the UK and Japan the model S and model X are far too large to ever be big sellers. There are even some bridges in the UK that the model X can’t cross because it is too wide.

Well, there are quite a few existing S and X models in the UK. They are definitely large vehicles, but no more so than a Land Rover, and definitely smaller than most delivery vans not to mention heavy goods vehicles. It would be very unusual to find a bridge (or anything else) that an X couldn't cross.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#106

Post by sacnoradhq »

oniony wrote: post #56
ars wrote: post #3

What's with the word "force"? The tweet makes very clear there is no force, there are simply options and the customer can accept them or not.

If you want a Tesla S or X you are forced to buy a left-hand drive one. You are obviously not forced to make a purchase if you don't want one or decide the compromise is too much (which I imagine nearly everyone would).

The word "force" is being abused with disingenuous ambiguity.

Unless they deliver an LHD instead of an RHD without asking, it's "RHD is discontinued and there is only an LHD."

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#107

Post by sacnoradhq »

floodle wrote: post #41
sschueller wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO cars that have no physical buttons for important task should not be approved for public road use as long as any interaction by a driver is required.

I really hope this touchscreen trend in cars dies, and soon.

Touchscreens must avoid subsuming required, frequently used, or emergency controls. If/when car designers violate this rule, the interior UX is fundamentally unsafe and/or unusable.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#109

Post by sph »

chrismsimpson wrote: post #40
sph wrote: post #8

How is it worth to lose the UK, AU and Japanese market with this move? I'm seeing a lot of Teslas in London, I don't see how eliminating the right-hand configuration is justifiable economically. Yeah it might be a ball ache to design a car that supports both driving styles, but all brands with global reach have to deal with it. The grabbing stick is equivalent to being told "fuck you for living in one of those countr…

Frankly, kind of glad see less edifices to that moron here (Australia).

Certainly, a supply vacuum means someone else will eat the EV lunch in those very rich markets. Someone with smaller ego and better business acumen.

Re: Tesla gives UK owners grabbing stick after forcing them to get left-hand-drive

#110

Post by veltas »

matsemann wrote: post #26

When Tesla cancels a long standing order, do they reimburse you or pay some fee? At least if you reserve it and cancel as a consumer, you lose your deposit. Weird if they can do it with no financial consequences but not you.

Car orders: you can definitely get all your money back if they're cancelled, or need to change from what you ordered. The specific contract you signed might include a clause to say they will pay a fee for cancelling your order, but I don't believe this is a consumer right. I don't know what Tesla do, but there is no situation where they can change the driving side of the car (or any significant details of the order whatsoever) without offering a full refund at the very least. This would be covered by most countries' consumer rights laws.

The title is dishonest, Tesla hasn't forced anyone into a wrong-sided car.

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