Tesla sales tumble nearly 9% as competition heats up and demand for EVs slows

I don't know why anybody in their right mind would buy an EV. A hybrid, I can understand. But an EV?

Anyone who has bought one has been sold a bill of goods. The environmental footprint of an EV is horrendous. And the maintenance & service costs skyrocket as the vehicle ages, especially if the battery has to be replace. And then there are those pesky battery fires.

zones2surfToday 07:38 am JST

I don't know why anybody in their right mind would buy an EV. A hybrid, I can understand. But an EV?

Anyone who has bought one has been sold a bill of goods. The environmental footprint of an EV is horrendous. And the maintenance & service costs skyrocket as the vehicle ages, especially if the battery has to be replace. And then there are those pesky battery fires.

The C02 footprint is less than an ICE, so you know, tradeoffs.

"The C02 footprint is less than an ICE, so you know, tradeoffs."

That's totally false. The CO2 footprint of ALL vehicles has to include the mining, refinement, and the production of ALL components of the vehicles. This fact gives EVs an outsized footprint due to extensive mining required to produce the massive batteries which also have a relatively short useful life.

The consumer market demand for EVs is weak because of the reliability issues and inconveniences of charging, not to mention the sharply decreased performance in cold conditions.

The Hertz rent-a-car corporation learned a very expensive, painful lesson for investing in a fleet of EVs. Customers DID NOT WANT THEM and were sometimes forced to accept one although they had NOT reserved an EV. The company had to ditch the entire EV fleet (into an already very soft resale market) at Fire Sale prices. It was so bad that the CEO resigned over his foolhardy decision to invest in EVs. Reality bites.

 And the maintenance & service costs skyrocket as the vehicle ages, especially if the battery has to be replace. And then there are those pesky battery fires.

1st the CO2 footprint of EVs is far less over the life of the vehicle if its charged with renewables like solar , wind or nuclear.

2nd maintenance costs are still cheaper than a new ICE car, Tesla batteries are good for at least 10yrs, also proven.

3rd EV fires per capita are less than ICE cars per capita, also backed by government data

Here in California, Teslas are ubiquitous. My biggest complaint with them is that I don't have one.

On the subject of plugin hybrid vs. EV, I think it is purely a matter of personal choice. Both are very good alternatives to ICE vehicles. The plug in hybrids are generally a little cheaper, which is always a good thing.

General Motors has stopped production of the Volt, which allowed one to go about 60 kms on battery power, and had a ICE for backup. A neighbor had one. She told me that she loved it. She only had to use the gas engine when she went to visit her daughter, who lived about 30 miles away. She said that in one year, she only bought gasoline three times. Also, no fancy charger was needed. She ran an electrical cord out to her driveway to keep the Volt topped off, if needed.

Hervé L'EisaToday 09:28 am JST

"The C02 footprint is less than an ICE, so you know, tradeoffs."

That's totally false. The CO2 footprint of ALL vehicles has to include the mining, refinement, and the production of ALL components of the vehicles. This fact gives EVs an outsized footprint due to extensive mining required to produce the massive batteries which also have a relatively short useful life.

That's what actual scholars did:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/when-do-electric-vehicles-become-cleaner-than-gasoline-cars-2021-06-29/

The Chinese will eventually dominate EVs, and thus passenger vehicles throughout the world, (although Japan will be the last holdout thanks to its stronger protectionist tendencies). Check out the $11,000 BYD Seagull, if you don’t believe me.

General Motors has stopped production of the Volt

The stupidest decision ever made by a carmaker. Detroit is crying about the Seagull, yet they developed its worthy competitor well beforehand. It's like they want the Chinese to take over.

I suspect some Tesla layoffs in Austin, Fremont, and China are coming don the pipeline.

Like others have said, smart money is on hybrids until the technology improves.

I wonder if any of this is blowback by people who can't stomach the idea of spending money that will end up in Musk's pockets.

He's a very polarizing figure.

I only buy used cars, but I'd like a dual motor Tesla and would buy one if they get cheap enough. I'd love to test drive one to see the performance. The latest Prius is also stonking though, and I might get one of them instead come 2027 or whenever. My local Tesla dealer is 100s of km away.

Teslas are luxury cars and actually have luxury performance, million-dollar supercar levels of straight line acceleration. It is clear that few people care about car performance any more, look at the death of JDM and proliferation of underpowered joy-killing cars like keis and the 2000cc minivans (Voxy, Serena, etc), so any manufacturer of cars that go genuinely fast should be celebrated. I don't know why anyone would buy a conventional competitor to Telsa, say an M series BMW, when the Tesla has more tech and is going to absolutely smoke it in a straight line.

Feel so bad for the rich Tesla investors. Must be tough.

RedemptionToday  02:50 pm JST

Feel so bad for the rich Tesla investors. Must be tough.

Nah, still up over 50% even with this bad year.

TESLA is the future of EV's and EV's are the fuure of cars whether anyone likes it or not.

The crazy burning of petroleum in combustion engines kills our planet rapidly. The revolution of transferring all land transportation to electricity must go on. Replacing a silly petroleum wagon to a modern EV is not a penalty: The EV is much more economical, safe, comfortable, convenient to use and maintain and enjoyable. The electricity revolution in transportation is slowing down because the climate crisis denialists are fighting against EVs with fervent hatred, while employing all kind of lies. They are a modern breed of Luddites.

we will never get rid of diesel engines. ships, agricultural and industrial vehicles have no alternatives.

high insurance rates, low resale value from 30% or more battery capacity reduction after 3-4 years and high repair costs are all affecting sales. early adopters shook all those off the trees.

driving environmental guilt down to the consumer doesn’t change the fact that industrial and commercial energy and environmental issues remain there and are equal to transportation.

electricity doesn’t grow on trees. generation is still predominantly based on petroleum and gas. the electrical grid to support a shift to ev’s doesn’t have the capacity even in the next 5 years because of electricity guzzling chip fab plants and data centers being built.

Beautiful Design, tesla has come a long ways.

I wish they could make a Manual trans. EV model ? If they do I am a buyer, I just can't even touch an Automatic trans. auto.

I don't know why anyone would buy a conventional competitor to Telsa, say an M series BMW, when the Tesla has more tech and is going to absolutely smoke it in a straight line.

A new Tesla today looks indistinguishable from one over ten years ago. Regardless of its performance, if you're content with that you're not a car enthusiast.

China will take over the EV world market..

Just matter of time..

TokyoLivingApr. 3 10:51 pm JST

China will take over the EV world market..

Not in countries that demand good customer service.

TokyoLivingApr. 3 10:51 pm JST

China will take over the EV world market..

Highly unlikely in the US, EU, and other democracies, where Chinese EVs are being investigated for forced labor, product dumping, spying, etc. etc. etc.

https://apnews.com/article/china-electric-vehicles-privacy-personal-data-biden-844f2406512b94212ee1a92a61e5a33a

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-launches-anti-subsidy-investigation-into-chinese-electric-vehicles-2023-09-13/

Turns out being an unhinged narcissist isn’t good for a company’s brand.

Who’d have thunk it?

Nah, still up over 50% even with this bad yea

Mathematically incorrect. The high for the YTD is 242.42. It closed at 168.38. That’s a REDUCTION in value of 30.56% while the larger stock market is up about 5%

And the trend lines are bad. One analyst says the actual value is about 14/share.