It is a very big market. Maybe make them up with a little enclosed body so we don't get wet, a place to keep our canes and an old arrroooggahhh horn.

 

http://rameznaam.com/2016/04/12/how-...-vehicles-get/

If this is right tesla will be setup to completely dominate the US car market assuming they can actually manufacture the things fast enough. That's a solvable problem though regardless if it's not possible right now.

 

The thing about EV cars is their rather basic. The parts aren't unique. Think of all the different approaches manufacturers have taken over the last 100 years to refine the ICE. The motor a telsa uses is nearly identical to one in the leaf.

It would be akin to every car having a Honda motor. Costs will fall. The value a brand offers will be reduces and there will be a wave of consolidation.

 

Good at making rocket launches cheap too.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0XP2T2

 

That's very fine for many places in the US. For us Europeans it's quite different, many if not most of us don't even have our own garage at home, we park our cars in community parking places. Golf-cart style vehicles are already existing, often powered by small 50cc moped petrol engines, but they are a danger in our public streets and roads since they are far too slow.

I quite like the concept of the Chevy Volt (Ampera in Europe), 100% electric but with its own power generator working on petrol or diesel in case that's needed, that removes the anxiety of the limited range of the electric power unit, especially when you have to carry more load or drive uphill.

 

A car is more than a drivetrain as cool as that drivetrain is.

Traditional car companies spend vast resources on chassis, body work, interior design and materials,AC systems, safety , braking,suspension and many things I can't even think of.

I've been curious as to how Tesla could pull the whole package together with such a small and new organization.

 

*^ they went to the best suppliers and bought their way in

 

Probably a lot of truth to that. And not just suppliers but also production experts. Same as Porsche did when they hired Lean/Toyota Production System experts and finally went from lousy quality to among the best.

 

Ah, if only it was that easy. Buy the best parts and you'll have the best car.

Also, how do you know what to order if you've never ordered it before? If I had to spec the dash plastic on a car, I wouldn't have a clue. I could spec the hardness and color and even the surface finish....but I guarantee I'd miss some key elements about the physical properties. What kind of deformation qualities does it need to have? What temperatures must it have to survive? How do I handle integrating it with steel or aluminum, with different expansion rates? LOTS of things to think about and it's the little details that trip you up.

Systems integration - drivetrain, chassis, suspension, electronics, cooling - is not the sum of the parts. It takes a whole lot more to make it all work as a package.

That's why they've had thousands of replacement motors and batteries in these cars. The quality of the parts is a key component but if you don't actually know how to put a car together, how to protect and cool (or heat) components, how to manage impact forces or how to isolate equipment from the elements....you're still going to have failures.

Tesla has certainly led the way in bringing all-electric "mass produced" vehicles to the world but they're still nowhere near as experienced as the big car OEMs in making a car handle all different kinds of drivers, weather, environments and general troubles that comes with driving a vehicle all the time, everywhere.