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A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

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Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#911

Post by gdudeman »

skellera wrote: post #905
le-mark wrote: post #875

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon has proven to truly be the dumbest smart guy ever. He alienated Tesla’s core customers; tree hugging liberals, and anyone who cares about sustainability. The GOP nor their voters care and never will. I called this Tesla stock crash months ago; did not act on it though.

I think less people care about it politically than you think. Most people I know who have Teslas stand by the product even through Elon’s dumb shit. I think people care more about their own convenience. There’s nothing else in our market that’s even comparable. People talk a lot of shit and it wasn’t great to start but FSD is on a different level now, especially on newer cars like the new Model Y. Having a car that m…

This anecdote doesn’t match the data.

It is definitely slowing demand. You can see it in the Q1 numbers and the discounts on vehicles.

You can ask anyone who buys used EVs in Seattle. There is a glut of Tesla sellers and not many buyers.

Like it or not, your car says a lot about you. People bought Teslas because they liked what they said and now they are avoiding them because they don’t like it.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#912

Post by nrp »

leoapagano wrote: post #487

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this truck. But I feel the same way about this truck that I do about the Framework Laptop (having owned one)—cool idea, cool product, but will Slate be around in 5 years to keep making parts and offering support for it?

5 years later, we’re still around and more successful than ever, both from a mission achievement and a business fundamentals standpoint.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#914

Post by toomuchtodo »

skellera wrote: post #905
le-mark wrote: post #875

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon has proven to truly be the dumbest smart guy ever. He alienated Tesla’s core customers; tree hugging liberals, and anyone who cares about sustainability. The GOP nor their voters care and never will. I called this Tesla stock crash months ago; did not act on it though.

I think less people care about it politically than you think. Most people I know who have Teslas stand by the product even through Elon’s dumb shit. I think people care more about their own convenience. There’s nothing else in our market that’s even comparable. People talk a lot of shit and it wasn’t great to start but FSD is on a different level now, especially on newer cars like the new Model Y. Having a car that m…

Tesla once again tells its own CEO Elon Musk to knock it off with the politics - https://electrek.co/2025/04/22/tesla-once-again-tells-ceo-el... - April 22nd, 2025

67% of Americans would not consider buying a Tesla, new poll says - https://electrek.co/2025/03/28/most-americans-would-not-cons... - March 28th, 2025

Tesla sales fall by 49% in Europe even as the electric vehicle market grows - https://apnews.com/article/tesla-sales-recall-trump-byd-b6f5... - March 25, 2025

Tesla is done in Germany: 94% say they won’t buy a Tesla car - https://electrek.co/2025/03/14/tesla-is-done-in-germany-94-s... - March 14th, 2025

Australian Tesla sales plummet as owners rush to distance themselves from Elon Musk -https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/mar/06/australia... - March 6th, 2025

(own several Teslas, won't buy another)

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#915

Post by directevolve »

yellowapple wrote: post #903
testing22321 wrote: post #893

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US automakers lost the plot a long time ago, and have just been sucking out money without innovation or improvement since. When California and the EPA tried to legislate lower emissions 9 years into the future, the US automakers sued to block saying it was impossible. Japanese automakers were already selling vehicles that met those standards. When they badly, badly screw up, they just get bailed out with public f…

> When they badly, badly screw up, they just get bailed out with public funds When this happens, I think it's only fair that the bailed-out company becomes publicly owned. If I'm forced to invest in a company with my tax dollars, then I damn well better be treated as an investor. Where are my shares? Where are my dividends?

When the USG bailed out banks via TARP during the 2008 financial crisis, it did so by buying shares in those companies. It later sold those shares for a $30.5 billion profit.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#916

Post by karaterobot »

I couldn't be more excited about this vehicle (I put $50 down to reserve one), but god damn, that customizer tool is bad. I'm someone who goes to a lot of auto manufacturer websites and makes imaginary builds, so I think I've spent time using the majority of builder apps that are out there, and this is one of the worst. On a laptop, with a shorter screen and a touchpad, it's really hard to use. Which is too bad, since customization is their whole deal.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#917

Post by gosub100 »

le-mark wrote: post #875
theshrike79 wrote: post #828

And the worst thing is that Elon could've been a living legend by building/funding colleges and schools focused on the tech his companies need, software development, robotics etc. Or even given out million dollar scholarships for the very top students. And he still would've been worth over 250 billion easily. Instead he chose to buy the president and start "optimising" the government with AI.

Elon has proven to truly be the dumbest smart guy ever. He alienated Tesla’s core customers; tree hugging liberals, and anyone who cares about sustainability. The GOP nor their voters care and never will. I called this Tesla stock crash months ago; did not act on it though.

The fact that so many "climate activists" and environmentalists turned on him confirms my suspicion that they didn't think so highly about the earth or climate change in the first place. They care about partisan politics and their tribe more than the planet.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#918

Post by steve76 »

Animats wrote: post #771

The US is falling way behind in electric vehicles. If BYD could sell in the US, the US auto industry would be crushed.[1] What went wrong is that 1) Tesla never made a low-end vehicle, despite announcements, and 2) all the other US manufacturers treated electric as a premium product, resulting in the overpowered electric Hummer 2 and F-150 pickups with high price tags. The only US electric vehicle with comparable pri…

[dead]

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#919

Post by ajmurmann »

almosthere wrote: post #848
IceHegel wrote: post #808

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the biggest problems in the United States is the misallocation of ambitious people. The highly educated and ambitious people see finance, government, tech, and corporate executive tracks, as the way to convert their energies into social status. Even startups these days seem to be a case of too many chiefs, not enough Indians.

Well the problem is US wants to be the world's managers. And all we cared about is writing messenger apps. Totally missed the boat on building things, like houses, boats, and most of all new weird things we don't even have a concept for.

The problem is that things like houses and boats became political tokens and/or don't have the same profit scaling as software. Housing is mostly restricted by political opposition that made it very hard or even illegal to build much. Building ships is labor intensive which is expensive here, but AFAIK at least construction of navy ships has become a bargaining ship that gets moved around to support senators rather than being allocated to the most efficient place. In general it also seems like unions in the US are somehow more of a problem than in Europe or at least Germany where I grew up. They seem less powerful here but somehow less reasonable.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#920

Post by ajmurmann »

testing22321 wrote: post #893
Animats wrote: post #771

The US is falling way behind in electric vehicles. If BYD could sell in the US, the US auto industry would be crushed.[1] What went wrong is that 1) Tesla never made a low-end vehicle, despite announcements, and 2) all the other US manufacturers treated electric as a premium product, resulting in the overpowered electric Hummer 2 and F-150 pickups with high price tags. The only US electric vehicle with comparable pri…

The US automakers lost the plot a long time ago, and have just been sucking out money without innovation or improvement since. When California and the EPA tried to legislate lower emissions 9 years into the future, the US automakers sued to block saying it was impossible. Japanese automakers were already selling vehicles that met those standards. When they badly, badly screw up, they just get bailed out with public f…

There also is the chicken tax which has been protecting US automakers in the pickup truck space which has lead to then leaning much more into that. Together with absurd CAFE rules that benefit huge cars and more beneficial tax write-off rules for vehicles over 3.5t regulation has lead to US automakers focusing on cars that are absurd by international standards.
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