[laurent123456]

> Tesla has the customer reputation that companies like GM will never have again.

Tesla is more like a luxury brand so its biggest potential competitors will be the big 3 in Germany and possibly Lexus (which all have a pretty good reputation), and currently none of them propose that many options.

Audi and Lexus have none. BMW has two, but only one of them can sort of compete with Tesla (can't go far with the i5 battery). Mercedes only has one (if I'm not mistaken). It really feels like they're only getting started, and if/when they start releasing really compelling models, it will be something more to deal with for Tesla.

[hangonhn]

Oh there's a very good reason why the German carmakers are only now just getting started:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/german-governme...

In short, German carmakers' historical expertise in designing good internal combustion engines are worthless if electric cars take over. The auto industry is ripe for some serious disruption.

[merb]

btw. mercedes buys the batteries from asia and their engine did come from tesla, however they broke up and now they have a new partnership which helps them. german manufacturers have no interest in selling electric vehicles to the masses.