[cel1ne]

I don't think they will be, but I'm pretty sure various governments will want to start passing laws requiring electric cars somewhere around 2030.

The question is how they will take care of the already existing companies. Maybe Tesla will share more technology, so that the industry can transition as a whole.

[semi-extrinsic]

Volvo announced a few days ago that all their cars will be either EVs or plug-in hybrids starting from 2019. Toyota is almost there today.

From an end-user perspective, it's pretty obvious that todays plug-in hybrids with 15-30 miles electric range and 600 miles range on fuel will be better than pure EVs. >90% of people's driving is within the electric range, but you can still have a car with a big enough trunk (Try fitting two baby strollers in a Tesla! Or a couple of downhill bikes plus kit. Or scuba gear for two. Or...) that can still get you from SoCal up to Lake Tahoe without wasting time on charging.

As for competition on pure electric: BMW, VW, Ford, Fiat, Kia, Chevrolet/Opel, Nissan, Renault, Peugeot, Mitsubishi, Mercedes - they all have "proper" pure electric cars on the market today that are seeing sales figures within an order of magnitude of Tesla.

(Note that being within an order of magnitude only requires that you sell 7000 EVs globally in a year, that's a pretty easy target.)

[grp]

Tesla was not the first one and is not the only electric car manufacturer. Nobody needs Tesla.

[majewsky]

The biggest accomplishment of Tesla will probably be that it provided the wake-up call to the big auto companies.

[mercurysmessage]

Didn't France just announce that they are going to require electric by 2040? I wouldn't be surprised either. We're at a much better point to use them and grow the infrastructure now.