[masswerk]

Well, startups are not actually a mainstay of European cultural tradition… ;-)

On the other hand, more traditional enterprises, like, say, Mercedes Benz, will be quite cautious with claims about their R&D, until they have their level III autonomous car system actually approved (and even then… don't make too much of a fuzz, as it is still limited, etc…)

[martin8412]

That's actually a great comparison. Tesla spends tons of cash boasting about their cars' level of automation.

Meanwhile Mercedes just brings a product to market that is superior without big fanfare.

[masswerk]

Or, for another Tesla comparison, take Citroën (that is, Stellantis): While Tesla keeps on going about how there will be an affordable EV someday, thus they are saving the world now (without anything like this even being in sight), Citroën actually launched the Ami (an electric 2CV equivalent at EUR 6,900.) And they didn't talk about this before the launch, either. (Then there was a short-lived publicity fuzz – and then they mostly forgot about it. That's quite a genuine example for how European enterprises think, showing off appropriately works.)

[panick21_]

And just like with MB and self driving, how many Ami are actually sold? Tiny EV cars are nothing new.

[masswerk]

To make this a fair questions, please include, "how many cheap Teslas are there to date?"

(It somewhat boils down to, US firms have something which may be called "anticipatory marketing", which is deemed rather off-limits for European organisations. To the least, you'd paint quite a big bull's eye onto yourself.)

[panick21_]

It matters what question one asks and if its the wrong question even the right answer doesn't actually help.

Any basic company can simply throw out some micro-car on the market. These cars are rarely profitable and their production numbers are mostly irrelevant part of the market. People for the most part don't want these cars, and car manufactures don't want to produce them either. The Citroën Ami will never replace actual ICE cars in large numbers and therefore it being affordable doesn't actually matter in the overall transition.

When Tesla talks about an affordable car, they are not talking about some low volume money losing marketing car. They are talking about something that has the capacity to cut directly into the market of a Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla. A car that can be produced in the millions, is actually profitable and most importantly has demand for millions.

That's what it actually takes to make affordable EV scale and to transition an industry where 90 million cars a year are produced to EV.

> (It somewhat boils down to, US firms have something which may be called "anticipatory marketing", which is deemed rather off-limits for European organisations. To the least, you'd paint quite a big bull's eye onto yourself.)

This is just complete nonsense. VW and others have also already talked about their future cars that are gone be cheaper. In fact they have gone much further then Tesla, even showing pictures and announcing prices and so on.

But somehow European regulators have not yet put VW leadership in front of the firing squad.

There is nothing illegal about saying 'we are gone have awesome products in the future'.

P.S: Cheap EV are already mass produced in China at large numbers. Citroën is not even remotely interesting or leading any any way in this. Ironically GM China is in the lead see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuling_Hongguang_Mini_EV

Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not against these small cars. I think they are good and if anything we should encourage more use of them. But its simply not apples-to-apples comparison.