What will it take to make you seriously consider an EV?

CRAZY. I can’t believe the entire supercharger network was shutdown overnight and has disappeared, there goes that advantage.

 

EV industry striving hard to create the safest vehicle on the roads.

Asian Woman Driver: Hold my Boba Tea

 

CRAZY MAN. I TELL YOU. ESE LOCO!

Did they say when the last day to charge your car is?

 

TODAY! Go charge your car one last time for old times sake!

 

If the SC network doesn't grow but sale of new cars continue, the user experience will just degrade over time as the ratio of cars to chargers increase. This doesn't even include non-Tesla vehicles getting on the network. Though who knows if anyone other than Ford and Rivian will be allowed on.

Musk has already confirmed that Super Charging network expansion will be slowed down and it's already starting to take shape. There is a report of Tesla backing out of 4 upcoming charging locations in NYC.

Kyle on Out of Spec youtube channel has a contact on the utility side saying that they've lost all point of contact at Tesla for 20 future sites that's in planning and utility build-out phase that is currently in limbo.

Tesla has sold about 2.3 million cars in the US in total. If Tesla sells just as many cars in 2024 as they did in 2023, then that'll be another 700k vehicles. That's over a 25% increase in demand for chargers by the end of the year even before you count the additional demand due to non-Tesla OEMs.

The move to trim so much institutional knowledge in the Supercharging team so suddenly feels impulsive rather than calculated. It will definitely have negative effects.

 

Last year Tesla built 56% of all fast chargers in the United States. In the long run these may turn into money makers but building them is a cash sink to begin with. Tesla has successfully convinced the entire North America to adopt their charging standard, they are no longer obligated to invest for the entire industry, especially when there is an industry wide down turn currently. Unless EVs is just not going to work out in the long run, someone else will step up because NACS is now the standard, that was the genius in getting everyone on board. Tesla has determined that going all in on AI, their chatgpt equivalent on wheels, is more efficient use of capital currently than building chargers.


BYD is the volume leader in EVs in China, they don’t build any chargers, imagine that. For Tesla it was a chicken and egg problem, without building the network themselves there would have been no demand for EVs, because they were the first (for all intents and purposes). Now that problem isn’t there anymore, they have built it, someone else can finish it. Whatever issue there will be for Tesla, will be the same for every other EV in NA because they are all on the same charging standard now.

 

The issue is if no one else steps up to the plate meet charger demand, it could cause a slow down in EV uptake in the US if the charging experience is terrible. That's not a death blow legacy makers like Ford, GM, and Toyota since they have ICE and hybrids to fall back on. The US government is not going to let the ICE auto industry die. The 2035 EV mandate date will absolutely be pushed indefinitely. Some might even prefer that than to let Chinese EVs come over.

I do wonder if eventually there will need to be government run or heavily subsidized charging infrastructure. Tesla has built a great network centered along interstates and cities, but there are still areas that are difficult for EVs to access, especially when towing. Those locations will be more expensive to build, more expensive to maintain, and have less usage than stations in population centers. They will certainly be money losers. Unless the government steps in through regulation or subsidies, EV charging desert may never go away.

 

Tesla is going downhill fast. Sell the stock if you still hold it.

 

My interpretation is the super charger division has made some poor costly choices. While I do not disagree this is a good business decision, Tesla has represented they intended to be a large player in the charging business. Now that said, the competition is lacking. States need to implement building code to included charging at key locations, such as inside garages and especially MDU's. Every new MDU that does not include a charging solution only pushes adoption out later.

What will bake everyones noodle is when the car manufacturing division will be pushed to the back burner. Selling structural chassis, HW+ and TeslaOS will be the bread and butter for the car division.

 

There will be people for years to come who will want ICE vehicles. EV's are just better all around vehicles. There are still some hurdles, but its inevitable for mass adoption.

 

I saw a kid and his dad opening the hood of the dad's porsche at school drop off today, and I was like "wow look at that they're going to tinker under the hood". Nope. He was getting his son his backpack. I will never get used to the hood being a second trunk in electric cars.

 

longevity, cost, reparability, long distance all make this pretty obtuse.

 

I always get someone staring at me at Costco when I load groceries in the front...

 

Because we structure things the way we do, the charging station build out in the Infrastructure Bill is taking a long time to get up to speed. Much of the delay is that the fed money gets sent down to state transportation departments who then are responsible for contracting out the installs. Well, some states run by politicians who don't like the bill and/or hate EVs are intentionally slow walking it--17 states haven't even issued proposals for companies to bid on. In other cases, getting the right amount of electricity to remoter areas is not something the local utility company is too keen on doing. In some instances, the requirement that the charging stations be built within 1 mile of a major highway is delaying things because the right property can't be found. Things should speed up this year and they still plan on adding 500,000 stations by 2030.

Those new charging stations also have a higher standard than Tesla or others, like Electrify America. The ones funded by federal dollars are required to be operational 97% of the time. Much of the current infrastructure is coming in around 80%, with Tesla in the middle of the two numbers.

 

Speaking of charging EVs, a friend of mine's neighbor was charging his Tesla the other day and the thing caught on fire. His garage is a total loss, and parts of his house are pretty messed up. Also, he is a doctor and burned his hand pretty bad, so I assume he'll miss some work.

Not the first time this has happened. Won't be the last.

I guess these fires are somewhat harder to put out, too?

 

the car or the charger/fixture caught fire? The cars are pretty much impossible to put out.

 

I'm not totally sure. He thought the car, but could be wrong, to be honest. The car was charging at the time, so it could have been either.

 

Terrible.

 

I could be wrong, but I don't think a certain presidential candidate is going to do their stock any favors, should he win.

 

The irony.