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Old 01-14-2020, 10:50 PM   #26
Stomachbuzz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dake View Post
Toyota was building the Prius for years before Tesla came along, and despite its success, you only ever saw lukewarm attempts from other automakers to dip into the market. Then Tesla showed up and now you have real efforts at innovation from all sectors to compete.

For better AND worse, Tesla is the metric against which all other automakers are now having to judge their battery-powered attempts.
Yes, Toyota was building the Prius for years before Tesla came along.
No, other several other automakers had heavily invested ventures into hybrid/battery powered vehicles before Tesla.
The Honda Insight actually predates the Prius in the U.S. Although you could say that was lukewarm, I suppose. Honda released the Civic hybrid in 2003, which was reasonably popular. Ford even released the hybrid Escape in 2005. At least 10 other hybrid models existed before Tesla was even heard of, with many more going into production.
Tesla delivered their first car in late 2008.
At that point in time, Tesla was still a joke. A company deep in debt, barely surviving off of steep government subsidies.
Nobody was trying to 'emulate' Tesla. And they didn't catch on until a few years ago.

The Prius caught on because it was quite revolutionary, and Toyota marketed it well. Also, talking about "The Prius" is a bit easier than saying "The Honda Civic Hybrid". Even so, nobody marketed their electric/hybrid stuff the way Tesla does as it is their sole method of surviving.
Until very recently, electric vehicles are a cute afterthought for most automakers. Just a way to "seem green" and a meager offering to help achieve CAFE quotas.

Yes, Tesla absolutely changed the game. But they did so while spending other people's money recklessly - a luxury that most automakers don't have.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dadhawk View Post
I think changing regulations had as much or more to do with that then Tesla. Tesla helped accelerate it, sure. What Tesla really did was help clarify the playing field. Everyone was working on alternative fuels, they just didn't have a focus. By entering the marketplace, Tesla helped consolidate the effort on electric, good or bad.
This is mostly correct.
It's something that was going to happen anyway, certainly when you consider what the EPA regulations are now, but Tesla made BEVs 'sexy' and probably fast-forwarded them 10 years.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Th3rdSun View Post
I understand the point you are trying to make,but comparing the Prius to a Tesla is kind of a false equivalency,considering one is a hybrid and the other is totally electric.

Not only that,the reason that other manufacturers weren't interested in electric cars is because of the lack of need for parts. They talked about this in the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car". A totally electric car eliminates the need for parts like alternators,water pumps,exhaust systems,spark plugs,etc.,thus taking away another revenue stream.
You absolutely can compare the Prius to the Tesla. Their only real difference is performance, while their similarities are immense.
The goal behind them is pretty much the same: to bring more energy-efficient vehicles to the forefront. And they both do it through electric propulsion.
The Prius is for nerds, and the Tesla is for rich nerds. That's the only real difference.

The 2nd point you make - about electric cars being far simpler, requiring less parts - is true, but I think you're misrepresenting it a bit. Dealerships, for sure, try to downplay electric vehicles due to lack of repair & maint revenue to be collected later, but I don't think the automakers share this behavior.

Quote:
Originally Posted by soundman98 View Post
the other important aspect is reliability. the consumer reliability expectations of an established automaker is drastically different than that of tesla.
I don't think so.
I think Tesla had much more scrutiny than anyone else. Mostly because of the grandiose ideas that Tesla presented. "It's gonna be great. The bestest ever. The batteries are gonna contain the power of the sun. And we're gonna warranty those suckers for 1 billion years. And it's never gonna break down"
So any time any sort of issue came up - a single car caught on fire, a pedestrian collision after like 500k miles of autonomous driving logged, etc - Tesla got reemed for it.
Additionally, their company image was so fragile that if their reliability rating dipped even slightly, they might seem like a fraud and lose everything. On top of that, all their eggs were in the same basket. If the Prius suddenly went bad, that's fine, that's only like 3% of Toyota's sales. They would just push the Corolla a bit harder until they got the Prius fixed again.
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