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by ceeplusplus 1525 days ago
> Their battery tech isn't unique (and not theirs entirely either). Everything except the infotainment system is "simple" (in relative terms).

The differentiating factor for Tesla has never been their battery tech or physical car quality. It's somewhat like Apple in that the combination of decent (but not the best) hardware and software brought together in a cohesive way creates something better than the individual parts. You're buying an "experience", which people often make fun of but ultimately I feel is more representative of what customers are looking for than looking at pure specs of the car. And a lot of the "experience" is powered by software or by custom silicon or other non-car things.

Android still can't compete with Apple in terms of the polish and cohesiveness of the product despite Google and Samsung being juggernauts, and I think Tesla vs. Ford/GM/etc. is much the same. Just pick up a Galaxy S22 and use it for a bit. The apps feel like a patchwork of different UX's, different ways of using the phone, and different modules that don't talk to each other.

1 comments

I'm not saying your experience isn't true, but is this experience so unique people will only buy Teslas in the future? If you think 50% of cars will be Tesla badged in 20 years then I'd say the stock price is justified, I doubt it. Apple is selling a device designed to scale, they just yell louder at Foxconn and they poop out more iPhones ready for consumption, with cars there are more constrains that, as mentioned makes me think the stock is overpriced. I'm not saying the apple experience isn't great, if I wasn't a nerd who likes to customize things I'd be on Apple gear, I'm forced to drive an apple at work where I'd like to drive Linux, so I get the thing. I guess with electric cars the customization part is less significant, but being able to put cars in people's hands is a problem on a completely different level to devices that weigh less than 200g.
Why mention Apple and then pull a 50% figure out of thin air? Apple market share for global smartphones is 23.4%. Tesla is 13.8% of global EVs. Not as dominant but still respectable.
So that'd make Tesla account for 13.8% of ~9% of global vehicle sales. The 50% number comes from Tesla being worth as much as every other car manufacturer combined. Definitely respectable, but 0.13*0.09 = 0.012. If my numbers are correct that'd mean 1.2% of worldwide cars are Tesla but they're valued as if 50% of all cars were Teslas.

Correct me if I'm wrong somewhere, but having 20% of a market vs 1% is a significant difference.

It's also quite more approachable for people to spend on a premium phone than a premium car, since a premium car costs more than what many "westerners" make in a year while an iPhone is less than a "westerners" monthly salary.