Hi Howard,
I disagree with most of your assessment. Let us look at what Tesla said in these two extracts:
Tesla statement:
As we all experienced first-hand, last year was the most challenging in Tesla’s history. However, thanks to your efforts, 2018 was also the most successful year in Tesla’s history: we delivered almost as many cars as we did in all of 2017 in the last quarter alone and nearly as many cars last year as we did in all the prior years of Tesla’s existence combined! Model 3 also became the best-selling premium vehicle of 2018 in the US. This is truly remarkable and something that few thought possible just a short time ago.
However, starting around May, we will need to deliver at least the mid-range Model 3 variant in all markets, as we need to reach more customers who can afford our vehicles. Moreover, we need to continue making progress towards lower priced variants of Model 3. Right now, our most affordable offering is the mid-range (264 mile) Model 3 with premium sound and interior at $44k.So Tesla are doing what they say and have by far the best cars.
Moreover, is $44k that expensive, its current value in Sterling is £34,250? The VW electric Golf is:
https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/electricfrom £32,730, the smaller version the eup is closed for ordering as they haven’t made enough:
https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/new/up-pa/explore/e-upAs I have typed many times this is all a smokes and mirrors business. All the legacy autos do not want electric cars, they have marketing departments that say how much they are spending on batteries and that they will use solid state batteries… But they can’t make electric cars because they don’t have enough batteries, solid state batteries do not exist and for the more dominant reason that they don’t want to hurt their existing sales.
Brexit is a great blessing for VW who were facing zero emission car requirements and now are saying that with the potential loss of the UK market they need to keep making hydrocarbon motors as their business is in trouble and otherwise they will need to lay of workers.
If you compare VW to Tesla and the emerging Chinese makers you have business that not handicapped by large legacy operations and who are producing 21st century cars, not Frankenstein constructions from butchered 20th century designs. All of these have clean electric cars that are far more sophisticated than anything VW have to offer and they are available to buy now. Tesla also have a portfolio of 21st century vehicles coming through their production process and with solar and storage are all geared towards the low co2 environment the politicians want.
Tesla are getting stronger by the day VW are being managed into a very difficult position and are now, like the rest of the German auto market, fretful of a hard Brexit.
Regards,