>(Tesla is building their own lithium refinery in Texas to drive down battery costs; point me to an automaker that is doing the same, they can barely source batteries at the scale they need)
With this kind of statement I have to believe you're arguing in bad faith. Even manufacturers that haven't jumped onto the full electric bandwagon like Toyota are ramping up manufacturing, see :
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/automakers-in-race-to-ma...
>The Japanese automaker said on Aug. 31 it will spend another $2.5 billion in its battery plant in North Carolina, called the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.
>The investment at its newest North American facility will increase capacity to support battery production. Toyota plans to hire another 350 employees for a total of 2,100 workers.
>Toyota said last year it plans to invest heavily in electrification and plans to spend a total of $70 billion, plus a total of $5.6 billion for battery production, which includes the new North Carolina investment.
> let’s set aside who Musk is for a moment and reflect on a $1B global dc fast charger network (“Superchargers”) and an EV manufacturing flywheel that continues to ramp (approaching 3 million units built and sold pa), together which has convinced major nation states to enact or pull forward their new vehicle combustion vehicle sales bans. Someone can be a pathological liar and greedy and yet have moved the needle.
Tesla totally invested in superchargers for the greater good and not to have a proprietary charging network! if it wasn't for the rules we have in the European Union they would have brought the proprietary chargers they had in America and would not allow competitors to use it.
The needle would move nonetheless, it is no longer a matter of choice but about the continued survival of the species as a whole.
In France tesla are a rare sight but small delivery cars like these :
https://imgur.com/a/kUUJKYV
Have become extremely common sights in the city centre.
We are also doing a lot in trying to get people away from cars as much as possible : Montpellier is going to make all local public transportation free.
It’s great to hear these auto makers are playing catch-up now wrt battery manufacturing capacity compared to when Tesla announced their Gigafactory in 2014. It only took a decade. I’m not being disingenuous, I’m just pointing out poor businesses operations, forecasting, and a lack of will at legacy automakers. Only very recently did Toyota shift their strategy from hydrogen to batteries because Tesla gave them no choice.
Tesla spent the $1B on their superchargers. Why would you let your competitor who are barely trying to deliver EVs freeload on it? Spend your own capital on fast dc chargers (or contribute to Teslas capital costs) if you want to offer your vehicle buyers a premium long distance experience (instead of the sadness that is random CCS chargers with no assurances they’ll work when you arrive). Legacy automakers will continue to have to be dragged to an EV future because of lackluster management and shareholders who can’t get comfortable with the cannibalization and transformation combustion vehicle manufacturing will have to go through to come out as EV makers on the other side.
High level, don’t slow down when you’re winning and don’t help your competitors. Drive them into the sea. “Innovator’s Dilemma” and all that jazz. Europe is a microcosm in the world where public transportation is likely a better option than EVs to your point (due to preindustrial revolution land use and urban planning). The rest of the world needs quality long range electric mobility.
> Why would you let your competitor who are barely trying to deliver EVs freeload on it?
This is such strange thinking. It's not like Tesla will give away free charging. The reality is more EVs using your chargers means more revenue. High utilization is better than low utilization. But you won't listen to me about it, so listen to Tesla instead:
The sad thing for North America is that it looks like Tesla will take the extremely cynical approach of allowing low volume manufacturers (like Aptera) to use Tesla's chargers if they adopt Tesla's plug. Hence the recent announcement of Tesla's plug supposedly being "open" and a "standard" now (as opposed to Tesla's previous faux openness):
Tesla believes that having the chargers support more than one manufacturer in this way will qualify Tesla chargers for US government subsidies. Tesla wants public funds, but doesn't want to provide public infrastructure by using CCS Type 1 Combo.
Maybe they'll allow other EVs to charge using a dongle, maybe they won't. But having to carry around a dongle merely to charge your car is just dumb. One more thing to buy, one more thing to lose, one more thing to break. Europe shows it doesn't need to be that way.
Closed, incompatible charging infrastructure makes EVs worse than ICE vehicles. You can fuel your ICE vehicle at any fueling station and you should be able to charge your EV at any charging station. Anything less is backward, primitive, and underdeveloped.
With this kind of statement I have to believe you're arguing in bad faith. Even manufacturers that haven't jumped onto the full electric bandwagon like Toyota are ramping up manufacturing, see : https://www.thestreet.com/investing/automakers-in-race-to-ma... >The Japanese automaker said on Aug. 31 it will spend another $2.5 billion in its battery plant in North Carolina, called the Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina.
>The investment at its newest North American facility will increase capacity to support battery production. Toyota plans to hire another 350 employees for a total of 2,100 workers.
>Toyota said last year it plans to invest heavily in electrification and plans to spend a total of $70 billion, plus a total of $5.6 billion for battery production, which includes the new North Carolina investment.
> let’s set aside who Musk is for a moment and reflect on a $1B global dc fast charger network (“Superchargers”) and an EV manufacturing flywheel that continues to ramp (approaching 3 million units built and sold pa), together which has convinced major nation states to enact or pull forward their new vehicle combustion vehicle sales bans. Someone can be a pathological liar and greedy and yet have moved the needle.
Tesla totally invested in superchargers for the greater good and not to have a proprietary charging network! if it wasn't for the rules we have in the European Union they would have brought the proprietary chargers they had in America and would not allow competitors to use it.
The needle would move nonetheless, it is no longer a matter of choice but about the continued survival of the species as a whole. In France tesla are a rare sight but small delivery cars like these : https://imgur.com/a/kUUJKYV Have become extremely common sights in the city centre. We are also doing a lot in trying to get people away from cars as much as possible : Montpellier is going to make all local public transportation free.