“Hyundai Ioniq 5 vs Q4 e-Tron vs Polestar 2 vs Model 3 group test (2021) review” (Car, an English magazine) says that the Hyundai is huge and maybe better for carrying adults in the back seat. Also, the Hyundai has tremendous style and cleverness. But the suspension isn’t adequate for the massive weight and the (“Long Range”) Tesla has better range than any of the competitors. What did more than 100 years of history do for Audi? Got them into last place! The Chinese/Swedish Polestar was “let down by ride, packaging, range”.
The Tesla 3 turned out to be the best all-around car, though they didn’t have the Mustang Mach-E to compare to. This is Car and Driver‘s favorite, but it lacks dog mode so I think a Tesla 3 would be way better for Florida, even if you don’t have a dog.
How is it possible that the experienced car manufacturers cannot knock Tesla out of first place when it comes to building a car? I’m amazed by this every day! (For haters who say that electric cars are bad, I guess the argument is that the Honda Accord is still a way better car than the Tesla 3 and therefore Tesla is not in first place.)
> How is it possible that the experienced car manufacturers cannot knock Tesla out of first place when it comes to building a car? I’m amazed by this every day!
It blows me away too. Tesla interiors are JUNK in my opinion. And their paint sucks, too.
This is the interior and paint on a $130,000 car? Yugos were painted better and had nicer interiors.
https://youtu.be/qen0ZlZM0ZA?t=1535
And I’m not kidding, either. This 1987 Yugo GV “barn find” has a nicer interior than a Tesla Model S Plaid (except possibly for the seats) in my opinion. And the paint didn’t come from the factory with defects that look like someone ripped a decal off and then sandblasted it after a few hundred miles.
https://barnfinds.com/investment-grade-1987-yugo-gv/
I’d cite two factors:
1) Software – traditional car makers are not good at software, and cannot attract top talent
2) Battery – turns out making a battery for an electric car is not trivial, and Tesla has put in the homework to meet the rigors of use in an electric car, with acceptable battery degradation characteristics
3) Style/fun – Tesla is a lifestyle brand, similar to Virgin. They’ve really nailed the customer experience, like Apple. This sounds easy, but it turns out to be surprisingly difficult, and depends on a culture of fun that the traditional auto makers haven’t had since the 1960s.
While Audi has world-class engineers in emissions-fudging software (or more likely, world-class purchasing managers to commission it from Bosch), they clearly suck at software in general:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/sep/13/audi-sold-me-a-29000-duff-car-that-it-cant-fix
My brother-in-law has a $140K Porsche Taycan (the electric car that led Porsche dealers to tell Porsche HQ there is no point in making gasoline cars any more). He’s had no end of troubles with it, mostly related to bad software doing things like stopping doors from locking (Porsche is a sister company to Audi and VW).
The legacy car makers are basically systems integrators who make their own motors and bodywork, but nearly every other component is OEM-ed from a galaxy of suppliers. Electric cars are much simpler, so a lot of the complexity-driven reasons for the old way of doing go away, but conversely new skills are required, specially software, where Tesla operates like a Silicon Valley tech company, not using practices from the 1980s. The legacy brands are so outclassed they don’t even realize how far behind they are, just like RIM Blackberry was in denial when the iPhone came out.
This should be Tesla’s next car. Remove the back seat and put a doggy bed in it, stick a 1,000 horsepower electric powertrain in it, and wait until you impale yourself on the steering wheel.
Doug DeMuro on the “Low Resolution Car” – he can make a cripped golf cart from Battlestar Galactica sound good. Tesla should fix their paint problem and hire him as a rep.
https://youtu.be/_XDSGzrCG2o?t=348
OK I’m done in this thread.
One benefit of Tesla is that you can start AC remotely from your phone or just leave it running. This option is a god send on the hot day.
I’ll rephrase your question: Why can’t the experienced car companies loose shareholder dollars on every car sale as well as Tesla does? Anyone can burn money. Why not wait to enter the race fully when it actually makes financial sense? The Mach-E and Lightning truck seem like good first showings to me. I don’t think there’s anything on the technology or manufacturing front that’s magical or novel about what Tesla is doing. The only novel thing they’ve done is with respect to marketing and perhaps some business/finance. When the big car companies decide the time is right to go all in on electric, they’ll easily surpass Tesla in terms of manufacturing, quality and design.