How is this company still so valuable.
I would buy literally any other electric car than a Tesla.
They have a huge head start. And their battery tech is top notch even if the rest of the vehicle is poorly build.
I’d personally never buy one either, for multiple reasons, but most people don’t care/know about the shitty build quality, the shitty ai and the scummy locking features down remotely when you sell the car.
Is the battery tech that good though? Genuinely don’t know.
Seems other manufacturers have a huge head start in every other area of manufacturing cars and even if they still lag behind on battery tech, it won’t be long before they catch up on this one metric, whereas Tesla would have to catch up on every other metric.
It was 5 years ago. Other companies are catching up.
One place they aren’t catching up is non-SUV EVs. There are a few, but if you want an EV that isn’t an SUV with over 250mi range, and cross Tesla off the list, your options become real thin.
Most battery tech is just lithium ion batteries wired in series, like 80 laptop batteries. They regulate the temps so that the batteries don’t degrade too fast. Battery tech hasn’t changed much in decades, so you will see the same problems on your phone battery on car batteries. So, no, Tesla battery tech isn’t special.
I recently heard china is the first to manufacture sodium ion batteries for their consumer EVs. Sodium is supposed to be better, but I forget why.
It is. Their cooling / heating system along with the battery is top notch. Others are catching up though.
And yes in terms of fit and build quality most actual car manufacturers are ahead.
Of course you also have Ford an ICE manufacturer that’s been building cars for centuries and still manages to produce shit with awful QA and constant recalls.
Isn’t it just a standard Panasonic 18650? And aren’t they changing their batteries to a Chinese brand?
Looks like only the S and X still use 18650s. The 3 and Y are using larger 2170 cells and apparently they’re also buying from LG not just Panasonic.
They have the premier charging network in the United States.
Unfortunately, nothing else comes close and probably won’t for a few years… Like 10 years at least. The US is probably a decade behind Europe’s electrification at this point, and about 75 years behind it’s rail electrification.