Elon Musk's latest Tesla Model 3 delivery promise: 6,000... a week Electric car maker Tesla is to boost production to 6,000 cars per week in June, company chief Elon Musk has announced – four months after his last production boost deadline sailed past unfulfilled. "As part of the drive towards 6K, all Model 3 production at Fremont will move to 24/7 operations. This means that we will be …
Tesla will be in trouble soon. Other manufacturers (Hyundai, Toyota, Jaguar, BMW etc) have more or less caught up with Tesla in terms of range and features on their electric offerings. Why would someone wait for the promise of a Tesla, when for the same money they could buy a Toyota or a Jaguar and still get an electric car?
Why would someone wait for the promise of a Tesla, when for the same money they could buy a Toyota or a Jaguar and still get an electric car?
I'm guessing, and yes, it is a guess because nobody has a clue what will really happen, that they think the residual value of the Tesla after 5 years will outstrip that of the Toyota?
"I'm guessing, and yes, it is a guess because nobody has a clue what will really happen, that they think the residual value of the Tesla after 5 years will outstrip that of the Toyota?"
Totally depends. A 5 year old Toyota Land Cruiser holds it's value better than the same age and spec Range Rover, and has probably broke down far less than the same too.
'Warburton added: "The narrative around Tesla has been that it is having difficulty ramping 'because producing cars is difficult'. But we think a more accurate portrayal is that Tesla is having difficultly ramping because it has attempted to reinvent totally the production line. This is too ambitious and risky in our view."'
The problem is that "producing cars is more difficult than Musk imagined". Musk doesn't understand that production engineers and suppliers have developed ways of doing things for good reasons. And slagging off sub-contractors as “worse than a drunken sloth" doesn't make things better for Tesla.
The principle loosely known as Chesterton's Fence:
'In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it."'
The shape of the car won't be the latest fashion, the seats will be flat and lost their padding and the paint will look dull. This is why I and most other people replace cars long before the vehicle is unusable.
All cars are scrapped long before their usable value has been completely spent because their market value has depleted to less than the desired value. If we removed the desired value, replacing worn and failed components would allow cars including battery-powered cars to realise the full life potential of the batteries and the bulk of the components, vehicle refurbishing would take place.
I suspect very few cars make it beyond 100k miles in the UK.
"Unless your car shares components with a more popular model or is popular in another country, you're going to commission someone to make track rod ends sooner or later?"
The 20 year old car needed new CV boots, which normall involves replacement driveshafts. They were very expensive, so I just bought new boots instead and fitted them one Sunday afternoon. Messy job but cheap and rewarding.
So far, Toyota have come up with most of the parts I need. If they don't have it then I speak to a friend in Ireland who then gets me the part from a scrap yard, as my car is plentiful in the scrapers over there.
In the UK, they get shipped to the middle east for parts.
It depends very much on local culture and prices/income.
In Denmark, which has Europe's most expensive cars, they have an average life of about 13 years*). For the same reason a lot of families only have one, and they do relatively many km. When I left I _sold_ an Accord at 13 years/340kkm
In Portugal cars are expensive (tax), a lot of people are poor and mechanics are not too expensive. And cars don't rust. At the moment we have a 1995 Pickup with 223kkm on the clock and a 2005 Accord with 186kkm. Both in good health, most likely thing to kill them is a crash making it uneconomical to repair.
*) Funny enough, it is about the same lifetime in Norway and Swede, even if cars are cheaper.
The least three cars I've owned have all done that.
1) Saab 95 Estate - Turbo blew up on the Autobahn (over 100mph) after 175K miles
2) Citroen XM - Hydraulic system failed in a big way after 155K miles
3) BMW 316 - Sold it for parts after 190K miles Gearbox was about to go phut
Perhaps I am the exception but being easy on the right foot really helps.
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