The Leaf had a range of what? 90 miles? It was a commuter car for eco-warriors that in no way could be the only car for the majority of households. The average owner probably had a Leaf and a Prius in their driveway. Their cost was about the same as a Tesla new, lower range, bad battery that was negatively impacted by cold weather (degradation of the leaf battery occurred much much quicker) and they lost their value like crazy. You can snag one for about $6k now. Teslas on the other hand maintain their value, lowest range is 240 miles and still cost about the same.
Compare an Audi E-Tron to a Model Y. The E-Tron gets 222 miles of range, goes 0-60 in 5.5 seconds and caps out for charging at 150 kW. A similarly priced (within $500) Model Y gets 292 miles of range, 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and charges at 250 kW. That's typical of their competition right now, and the main difference is at that price Tesla is making a profit on each car sold and Audi is probably losing money as they have to pay substantially more for their battery packs.
That's on the same size battery pack by the way. That's how much more efficient the Tesla vehicles are than their competition. Audi is where Tesla was 8 years ago. Basically at the same spot where Nissan was with the Leaf when they stopped trying to innovate.
There are companies that can compete on price, but not specs. There are companies that can compete on specs, but not price. There's no one that competes on both. That's the difference between the Leaf and Tesla. The Leaf had the market share they had, because hardly anyone else was trying at that price point, because it had to be a niche product at that time, now other companies are releasing cars and they don't compare.
I don't know if Tesla will maintain its market share or not, but so far the competition is underwhelming and years behind on tech, and on battery acquisition, which is the most important differentiator. We'll see how far behind they are on September 22nd when Tesla reveals their redesigned Model S.
Wouldn't be surprised to see another price cut for the Model 3 and Y within the next year to get a more clearly defined stack of products as their cost to manufacture drops. There will be more stories about demand problems when that happens. They'll keep selling the vehicles they manufacture and they'll open another factory in China and Europe (UK). Then expand into Australia and Northeastern US.
Expecting in the next month their cash on hand is going to go from around 8 billion to between 15 and 30 billion, which should allow rapid expansion of their manufacturing capabilities. We shall see.
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