What's the problem with electric cars?

[The Thong]

Originally Posted by abvolvo

For me [LIST][*]I hate it that I don't have the option to stop by a petrol station and fill it up with enough diesel to last me over 500 miles. [*]I also hate it that there are hundreds of different companies, cards, types of chargers. [*]Potential issues with faulty chargers when you most need to charge your car eg down to 2% battery! mg_smile

Now those are very valid gripes….

From what I can see the paying yo charge your EV is over complicated with app’s etc etc instead of just pulling up, plug in, pay by debit card

Charger reliability will always be an issue but if there was a bigger network so you had more choice in a local area it wouldn’t be a problem.

Once again a result of too much, too quick without thought to the infrastructure including petrol which could have a bank of chargers. There’s still much work to be done before this becomes user friendly

TT

[Moose Test]

Par for the course with technology unfortunately, there's often an initial explosion of competing, incompatible standards in a nascent market. Look at phone/smartphone chargers/carkits, early home computers, the first commercial electricity distribution networks and the early railway companies for a start.

It's a shame we continue to repeat those mistakes but it will get there in a few years. Manufactures will soon enough realise that significant market growth depends on consumer acceptance, and likely governments will get involved at some stage too, as with Apple and the EU recently.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Andymharrison

The place that he has been truly innovative and disruptive is SpaceX, but that's because he had the good sense to fund it and then leave the rest to the experts.

He's no innovator but does have an uncanny ability to get people to invest 10s of billions in his oddball schemes. Who in their right mind would have stumped up the cash to buy Twitter?

When I said disruptive - I meant in the markets of which his companies operate. And in Space activity, I suppose Space X has done that - but don't think it's because he's done something amazing and innovative, he's borrowed heavily from NASA's space program including the Shuttle and some more.

Same with Tesla really, not a totally new thing.

But that's not a slant on him - taking a good idea and making a commercial success of it is a great skill.

[The Thong]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

When I said disruptive - I meant in the markets of which his companies operate. And in Space activity, I suppose Space X has done that - but don't think it's because he's done something amazing and innovative, he's borrowed heavily from NASA's space program including the Shuttle and some more.

Same with Tesla really, not a totally new thing.

But that's not a slant on him - taking a good idea and making a commercial success of it is a great skill.

He also made EV ownership look cool and exciting by adding useful functions like Gull Wing Doors, a function to keep doggy cool while being locked in the car at a supermarket, autopilot, etc. I like the Tesla but maaan it’s expensive so not completely available to the general public who’re on “normal wages”. I’d have one if I had the facilities to charge one at home.

TT

[Andymharrison]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

When I said disruptive - I meant in the markets of which his companies operate. And in Space activity, I suppose Space X has done that - but don't think it's because he's done something amazing and innovative, he's borrowed heavily from NASA's space program including the Shuttle and some more.

Same with Tesla really, not a totally new thing.

But that's not a slant on him - taking a good idea and making a commercial success of it is a great skill.

I was thinking more along the lines of the satellite launching market than the work they are doing with/for nasa.

The return and reuse of main stages is innovative, nobody else thought of it as important but it's turned a gentleman's club of companies charging hundreds of millions into a much wider field charging a fraction.

Early entrants like Tesla rarely survive in the long run but the well runs ones often make a lot of cash out of technology licences before they get taken over, I haven't read much on Tesla though to know how prolific they've been with patents.

I think the two companies say a lot about Musk, I'm just not sure what though! one is heavily invested but largely left to run itself to much success and the other swings back and forth in fortune through constant fiddling with the product line and social media meddling.

[Moose Test]

I saw an interesting piece in USA Today this lunchtime.

Tesla apparently have yet to publish official sales figures for its Cybertruck however, since it has been the subject of an official recall notice, affected numbers have to be reported to the US Gov. Which in this case constitutes all units they've shipped so far.

That number is just shy of 4000 in total, since late November 2023. By comparison, Ford shipped 7.7k of its electric F-150 Lightning pickups in the 3 months of Q1 2024, whilst Rivian shipped 13.5k units in that same period. Ford had orders for more but also hit a QA issue, which in their case led to a shipment pause in that period rather than a recall.

I think the accolade for innovation and/or disruption in this particular market thus really has to go to Rivian right now, especially as a new entrant to vehicle manufacturing. It will be interesting to see what the likes of Ford and GM do about it.