As mentioned the story has at least two sides. If you didn’t take her version at face value you’d at least mention something about Tesla’s position.
Tesla has nothing to gain by taking things further, of course they don’t.
And can we please stop the ad hominems. They’re childish, vapid, and entirely counterproductive.
Tesla’s position was pretty clear, I don’t know what more I should have mentioned. But I don’t take their version at face value either, considering their accusations contradict the course of events. Her case is just one of the many, it came to my attention because of the BBC article.
Tesla is currently battling more law suits e.g.
The California attorney general’s office is investigating Tesla (https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA/), seeking information from customers and former employees about Autopilot safety issues and false advertising complaints, CNBC has learned.
Yes, that’s totally relevant for the Balan case. In fact it proves that her allegations are entirely true.
Didn’t say that at all. It only proves that safety concerns are taken more seriously now compared to say 10 years ago.
And can we please stop the straw man. It makes your argument sound very weak.
It’s you who brought up an entirely removed case. Look in the mirror WRT straw man.
It was in the news. So not that removed.
OK. I give up.
The thread title is “Tesla EV discussion” so entirely relevant.
Specifically because funnily enough (and no, that doesn’t prove anything and the case in point was more about Tesla’s treatment of employees who raise safety issues rather than anything else)
Good news for the fans maybe not so much for existing owners
it slashed the price of its Full Self-Driving driver assistant software to $8,000 from $12,000 in the United States.
Tesla cut the starting price of the revamped Model 3 in China by 14,000 yuan ($1,930) to 231,900 yuan ($32,000), its official website showed on Sunday.
In Germany, the carmaker trimmed the price of its Model 3 rear wheel drive to 40,990 euros ($43,670.75) from 42,990 euros, where the price has been since February.
There were also price cuts in many other countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Tesla has dropped the price of the Model Y, Model S and Model X by $2,000 each in the US. Model 3 prices remain the same, as do prices of the newly-released Cybertruck.
Tesla has had quite the week, between firing 10% of its workforce and losing two key executives, filing to get CEO Elon Musk’s voided $55 billion pay package reinstated, and putting its upcoming $25k car on hold.
This chapter in Tesla’s history should be marked “The hubris of Elon Musk”. His obsession with robotaxis and Full Self Driving is wrecking the company, and his decision to deprioritise the mass market smaller, cheaper Tesla Model 2 in favour of the vanity Cybertruck project has been a failure.
If you look at the Model 3, he’s stripped out key driver aids like indicators, gear selector, parking sensors, radar cruise control which can all be seen as a roadmap towards fully autonomous vehicles. He once said that Teslas which come off lease plans can be repurposed as self driving taxis, so that seems to be his vision.
To rescue the company what’s needed are activist investors who can kick him out and put in charge an industry veteran who will regain consumer confidence. Where the Chinese EV manufacturers are leading is in giving customers what they want, which is cheaper cars with equivalent levels of creature comforts like HUD, 360 degree parking cameras and conventional controls.
Maybe it’s time to think about consumers, at least once 
How is the replacement parts supply chain doing? Have independent suppliers entered the market or can parts only be bought from Tesla?
With computers, I liked to have a machine for experimenting, but for the daily driver, I always used a computer that was behind the curve. Typically leaving a few months or a year between new OS release and adoption to allow time for some main bugs to be found and fixed.
I see electric cars in a similar way. I’m not going to rush to become a beta tester. I’m happy to wait it out until prices come down, charging networks are built out etc. etc. and overall wait to see if EVs are here to stay or are just a passing fad.
I was of the same thinking until the end of last year when I decided to go full in with researching and test driving EVs. I think the tech is now pretty mature, Tesla and others have had cars on the market for more than a decade with the main improvements coming in the form of better batteries with less degradation and more charging stations popping up.
You can now get a car which gives you similar range to an ICE and for most people in Switzerland you are never more than a few km away from a charger (if you don’t have home charging). And in terms of price, I paid CHF 42,990 for a RWD Model Y which is in the same ballpark as an equivalent ICE mini SUV.
I will wait until 50% of the cars on the road are EVs or if 66% of new car sales are EVs. Maybe by then I won’t even need a car if robo taxis are indeed cheep and pervasive.
If you get a new car every 3-4 years, things do look fine. 40% depreciation over 4 years is far from the worst in the car market. So, happy numbers. One big question is what happens in the used market. There’s people who will drive that car between 4 and 10 years old. And later, export. The current assumptions (seen in prices) for used car market is that EVs can be driven in CH until 10 years old and then successfully exported.
Right now it’s the first mass amount of people buying used EVs, but they are taking the risk of becoming bagholders. The health of the used EV market depends on their collective experience. Take the Tesla Model 3, first sold in Switzerland on 2020. Right now a lot of them are sold for a 2nd time and the experiences of customers over the next 5 years will reveal the truth. From this perspective, it’s easy to understand Phil_MCR’s concerns.
There are additional questions: 1) How many trained EV mechanics out there?, 2) Can EVs be successfully exported after 10 years? , 3) battery recycling (environmental and financial concerns).
EVs were exempted from a recycling fee until 31.12.2023. Last update I read was this one from Swiss BAFU. What are the long-term financial implications of electric vehicle importers being obliged to take back old batteries free of charge?
With the enormous growth of electric vehicles, it has become increasingly important to find environmentally sound ways to dispose of electric cars’ old lithium ion batteries. Importers and electric vehicle makers are taking responsibility and working together to put an environmentally sound disposal system in place – from collection to transport and recycling of materials – and to secure the required funding. Makers and importers of electric vehicles have been granted an exemption from paying the prepaid disposal fee, initially for another two years, until the end of 2023. The exemption requires proof that the batteries are being disposed of in an environmentally sound fashion. Electric vehicle makers and importers that are exempt from disposal fees are obliged to take back old batteries free of charge.
Technology may be mature, but the whole market from manufacture from waste disposal is still an infant.
All of the „seasoned“ industry-veterans had no idea how to produce a minimum viable product of a BEV that simply isn’t a gas car with batteries.
So, who do you suggest to take over the helm of Tesla to bring it forward?
As pointed out, most offerings from traditional vendors are either too heavy or only suited for city driving (Dacia Spring and the likes).
As for the used-car market - not sure if I’d buy e.g. a 2019 Model 3. It depends on the price and that depends on the amount of issues being found during a thorough pre-purchase inspection.
At minimum, these cars usually need new control arms, bearings, better sound insulation.
Then, I’d look at the AC/DC charging relation. Lots of DC = bad for degradation.
I would expect to haggle that car down a couple of thousands to pay for this work.
Hey, just got curious, googled control arms and the following came up. These are great news, 3rd party suppliers are manufacturing and retailing parts for Tesla.
Yes. These are of much better quality and durability than Tesla‘s.
If your car is out of warranty and you have to pay for this stuff anyway: go for Meyle.
