Understand, Biden has been the disaster we expected, and the “Inflation Reduction” Act does not address inflation and is strictly, pretty much, a pro-electric vehicle law. Biden is responsible for the increase in fuel prices - and for seriously bad foreign and military policy.
But we are where we are. Namely, Biden policy has accelerated humanity’s learning, specifically in the electric vehicle space. And the “Inflation Reduction” Act is still in being, still promoting EV adoption. But, it’s a funny thing.Like all auto companies outside of Detroit, Tesla is non-union. And Tesla does not, in any appreciable way,
advertisesubsidize the MSM. And under Elon Musk,Initially Tesla was the only one to make electric cars, essentially, since the gas buggies took over from horses (and steam and electric cars) about eleven decades ago. And Tesla has never lost its lead in the EV space. Not even close, all protestations of Biden and the MSM to the contrary notwithstanding. So the situation is that Musk is a big Climate Change guy, specifically in Tesla’s EV pioneering and also Tesla’s solar power and mass battery storage industries. Biden’s policies promote everything Tesla does, while Biden and the MSM hate and demote Tesla itself.
The upshot is that the MSM basically hides Tesla. When they talk about Dealers’ reports that EV’s don’t sell, they are evading the fact that although Tesla sales have been on a virtual Moore’s Law pace (tho guiding for a slower growth due to economy uncertainty in the present quarter or even year), Tesla does not sell through a dealer network. So “dealers” deal in any brand other than Tesla. EVs other than Tesla don’t sell in America. And Teslas mostly don’t sell in red states.
But Tesla’s Model Y suv is the largest selling vehicle - EV or other - in China, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole. Tesla’s Model 3 sedan is available at a price slightly lower than the median car (of any type) sale in America. And the “Inflation Reduction” Act will make the payment on a Tesla more obviously even lower next year. Even tho Tesla, the profit margin leader in the whole auto manufacturing space but one, doesn’t need the IRA, Musk likes the IRA and is far from averse to exploiting it for Tesla’s benefit (while Biden et al grit their teeth and pay up).
The fact that the cheapest Tesla isn’t significantly lower (apart from the federal subsidy) than the median sale price of a car in America maps to the fact that Tesla is not yet competing in the lower half of the unit volume of the American car market. But Elon Musk’s style of management is fantastically aggressive at driving down cost. “Not yet” is far from “forever."
I respectfully disagree. Musk in many ways is still a hardcore lib, especially in light of things like EV's. For example, he's demanding more carbon tax on oil, all while saying the Dims shouldn't be so anti-oil they block drilling. Of course, this is so Tesla can sell more carbon credits to oil refineries.
Musk may not be a new style Dim pushing for transanity and such. But he's still very pushes the ideas Dims used to a decade ago.
The traditional auto industry in the United States is hamstrung by union regulations that eliminate any innovation and by a financing model that also limits innovation. Dealerships are a financing model. A dealer keeps X amount of loan that pays for Y amount of product. Largely, a dealership has to take a certain amount of junk they can’t sell so they can get the few things they can sell. This is necessary because the manufacturers are set up to mass produce particular models on particular lines. If those models are suddenly unpopular the manufacturers can’t easily change to something else. Thus, the dealerships sometimes end up scrapping cars because they can’t be sold. They can’t be given away either as that would subtract other sales that could be made.
Tesla declared it wasn’t an auto manufacturer. They were a technology company. Therefore, they don’t use the handcuffs of the dealership financing model. They aren’t union, which means they can innovate as much as they want.
I think that fire insurance will eliminate any of the current types of batteries. If Tesla can invent another, less dangerous battery, then they’ll survive. I have the highest hopes that they will survive as the present manufacturers need to die so they can be reborn. If it hadn’t been for Obama breaking laws and tradition, we’d already have a better vehicle industry. Instead, he kept the old production models on life support. England did exactly the same thing. Because of that today there are no big British auto manufacturers. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll never own another American made car from what is known as The Big Three.
I’m, quite possibly, the last person anyone would want to write to about how great Musk is. I think he’s a snake oil salesman, nothing more.
I don’t care about his cars...the first of which went to the rich, who also enjoyed some generous tax breaks from the rest of the taxpayers, so they could enjoy a Sunday driver to brag about to their rich friends.
As for his factories, it’s nice to see him building in the US. However, if what Peter Schweizer says is true, when China built a factory for him in China, he was required to give them access to the technology. So, time will tell if China can’t figure out a way to undercut him.
-——Biden policy has accelerated humanity’s learning, specifically in the electric vehicle space-——
That is a false statement. Elon Musk came along before President Biden. Elon Musk and his fantastic teams of mechanical and electronic engineers are responsible for the acceleration of electric vehicles.
Having said that, the rest of the article is spot on. The ongoing UAW pathetic attempt to capture stock holder profits spells doom for the Big Three. The UAW is Big Labor and is also the Democrat/Biden party. The Biden money give aways have produced inflation that is being challenged by a Fed raising interest rate that make car payments too high.
Then again, the sheer brilliance of the Tesla engineering teams under the guidance of Elon Musk have disrupted the auto industry beyond ever regaining what is remembered as the status quo
——Tesla does not sell through a dealer network——
Mary Barry the CEO of GM announced in the last day or so that GM was going to sell direct thus bypassing the traditional dealer network.
She is so screwed