A test drive of the Tesla Model 3 is very positive

Yep, incompatible charging systems.

Yikes, it’s worse than I thought - there are (at least) 3 systems out there. The new Chevy Bolt only works with one of them, the Nissan Leaf with two, I don’t know how many the Tesla can use:

Why in the world have EV makers not agreed to some standards, with all the computer power available the car could immediately inform the charger of its needs, and the charger would deliver appropriate current.

Here’s an article on Tesla’s supercharger rates:

Pull quote:

According to Tesla’s research, 400 kWh is enough to power one of its cars for 1,000 miles and can cover the driving needs of most owners for a whole year.

Hmmmmmmmm…

Yes there should be a standard, they are selling a charge, mean and spiteful to limit the market to your brand only, Guess I have to look into creating an after market adapter.

Aftermarket’s taken care of the supercharger problem:

1 Like

That doesn’t work at the Superchargers.

What’s mean and spiteful about not investing your own company’s money in supporting your competitors’ products? Isn’t it enough that they allow anybody to copy their technology? Let their competitors invest in their own infrastructures.

1 Like

And create a huge barrier to EV adoption…

I think the FTC might view a proprietary charging network as an attempt to seek out an anti-competitive monopoly. In a sense, Tesla might luck out, as one political party doesn’t much like the FTC doing much…and the other thinks Tesla can do no wrong.

I, OTOH, have a real problem with trust-seeking! Eventually, some enterprising nerd will reverse-engineer a supercharger access for non-Teslas. How Tesla responds to this will be…illuminating.

Tesla claims there are 6,118 Tesla Supercharger connections/parking spots in North America, there are more than 25,000 public level 1 and level 2 connections in North America, no shortage of charging stations for other than Tesla electric vehicles.

Does anyone remember the Cartalk TV show on PBS where they talked about the Tesla vehicle? It must have been back around 2005ish. Is there a copy of it here on the cartalk.com?

They never recovered? Are you kidding me?

https://amigobulls.com/articles/just-how-big-is-apple

It was not produced by Cartalk, but by PBS and they got Tom and Ray to narrate it. It was not specifically about the Tesla, but about alternative energy vehicles (which included electric cars and even hydrogen cars).

You need to familiarize yourself with the FTC regulations.
Not investing in your competitors or having a proprietary support system for your own products is not predatory.

1 Like

No, I’m not kidding. They have a 7.1% market share in desktops/laptops. Their highest market share ever was 13.4% in 2014, despite the fact that they invented the kind of home PC that people actually wanted to use. Their marketshare for smartphones, another product they popularized, isn’t much better, bouncing between around 12 and 16%. Android is wiping the floor with them.

They make a lot of money because their product is overpriced, but not all that many people are buying their stuff compared to the competition.

You’re right - it works at the destination chargers.

They’re one of the largest companies in the world.

Their net worth is bigger then Dell and HP - COMBINED.

They have a EBITDA of 42.5 (this number is HUGE) over the past 10 years. Those numbers are through the roof. A EBIDTA of 10 or greater is considered healthy. And you say they never recovered? Your definition of recovery vastly differs from mine.

You seem to keep missing the part where, from the beginning, I’ve been talking about market share, not profits.

1 Like

Market share in a shrinking market is meaningless. Apple saw the market shift to Tablets and cell phones and actually did something about it. Dell and HP are just paying catch-up.

Except that the whole point I was making hinged around making Macs proprietary back in the 80’s and 90’s, which sent most consumers to the PC/DOS/Windows side of the fence, and Macintosh, as I said, never recovered and has a truly pathetic showing in the marketplace.

This move hurt them so badly that they came very close to going under. The iPod saved them, which it should be noted was not a proprietary format. Hmm.

They did the same thing with the iPhone that they did with the Mac, and their market share is pathetic there too. Sure, they make tons of money off of it because they charge $400 more per phone than they’re worth.

They’re fortunate in having developed a cult following of “creative” people who would buy a $1,000 brick if it had an Apple logo on it. But the bottom line is that as far as market penetration goes they are getting obliterated, and if the “creatives” ever figure out that macs do exactly the same thing PCs do for half the price, and Androids do exactly the same things iPhones do, but better and with more flexibility, their income will freefall.

Market share is NOT a way to compare a companies growth or worth.

It’s a very misleading figure because of market growth or decline.

But let’s use that for argument sake.

In 1984 Apple sold 240,000 Macs and owned 84% of the market.

2016 Mac dropped from 84% market share when the Mac first rolled out to 10% market share and selling 18,446,000 Mac’s.

Market Share dropped and Sales have increased 50 fold.