Photo: depositphotos.com, modified
What has been Tesla's goal so far? To electrify the automotive industry? Debatable. To save the planet? Doubtful. To build the best car on the market? Don't make me laugh. No, the only driving force behind the company is called "growth."
There's actually nothing wrong with that, especially when you're a completely new face on a market full of century-old dinosaurs. However, it all comes down to what it is you decide to sacrifice along the way to achieve that goal, and in Tesla's case that's been the quality of its products (too many cases to mention only one), the safety of its customers (see Autopilot and FSD Beta), and the post-purchase customer service (ranging from bad to dreadful).
Why, you might be wondering, is a company that refuses to use a dealership network on the premise that it wants to keep a grasp on the relationship with its customers, doing such a poor job of it? Well, it's all down to that growth I mentioned earlier, and the fact it needs to have an exponential rate. Well, production basically needs to double year over year, meaning Tesla has to ship two million units in 2022.
With all that focus on producing cars, do you really think there are any resources left to cater for the people who have already given Tesla their money by buying a car? Take Steven Salowsky's case, for instance. The man needed a new seat for his Model 3 due to an issue with the airbag (so a safety-related problem). However, he had to wait more than a year for service because there were no parts available. During all this time, however, Tesla was building hundreds of thousands of Model 3s that had the exact same part that Steven was needing. Priorities.
Well, it may seem now like this strategy is paying off seeing how Tesla is fresh off its best-ever year, but if it stays the same, it will ultimately bring the company's demise. No, it's not because it'll run out of new customers - more people are getting their driver's license each year than Tesla will ever be able to build vehicles. Plus, Musk talked about the importance of keeping the birth rate up, so I imagine a lot of his more ardent followers have already heeded his warning and started doing their part by producing as many little Stans as they can.
The real problem is that when you get so many disgruntled customers, their voice will eventually become so loud, it will be impossible to ignore for all those considering the acquisition of a Tesla. At the moment, it's still relatively easy to dismiss any critics as "oil shills" and "shorters", but as their number grows, maintaining this conspiracy rhetoric will prove impossible.
In fact, the house of cards is slowly starting to crumble already. More and more supporters of the brand are starting to take off the rose-tinted glasses they've been using to look at the company through so far and see the real problems a lot of existing customers are facing. They're also beginning to realize that FSD Beta may be a lot further away than what Tesla is painting it as so before you know it, the spell is gone, the veil is lifted, and the EV-maker is exposed for what it truly is: just another company trying to make as much money as possible.
It helps not to think of Tesla in a vacuum, either. The EV maker may have been virtually alone at some point, but that's rapidly changing. Fans are doing their best to dismiss the "threat" posed by the rest of the industry by focusing on the ever-diminishing number of advantages offered by Tesla products (and ignoring the negatives), but the fact of the matter is the number of competitive alternatives on the market is increasing every year.
Take the Porsche Taycan, for example. OK, it may be more expensive, but it's also in a completely different galaxy when it comes to build quality and finish, two things a lot of customers will value more than 0-60 mph acceleration (which it's reasonably good at, too). Sadly for the German electric sedan, it falls severely short compared to its Tesla rivals when it comes to maximum range. Except it doesn't.
Tesla did a great job exploiting the EPA's testing methods to get a favorable estimate, whereas Porsche couldn't care less. As a result, the American vehicle will fall short of meeting its official figures in the real world, whereas the German one will exceed them. The result? Virtually identical range figures (297 miles for the Porsche Taycan and 310 miles for the Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD, according to tests performed by InsideEVs).
And then there's the Lucid Air. Assuming the startup manages to mass-produce its battery-powered sedan, the Air's powertrain would put Tesla in a position it's never found itself in so far: playing catch-up in the EV game, an area it has dominated from the beginning (even if by a lesser margin with every passing year).
If Tesla was indeed a company focused on steady, sustainable growth, then it could very well establish itself as one of the industry's main names by making sure its products were well-built and its customers well taken care of. Instead, the current model points toward a short-lived, flash in the pan type of approach where the primary care is the stock value - when that comes tumbling down, so does the rest of the company. It all depends on which comes first - the stock collapse or the change in approach. There's still time for the latter, but it looks like Tesla has no interest in doing that. Either that or it's doing a hell of a job hiding it.
Why, you might be wondering, is a company that refuses to use a dealership network on the premise that it wants to keep a grasp on the relationship with its customers, doing such a poor job of it? Well, it's all down to that growth I mentioned earlier, and the fact it needs to have an exponential rate. Well, production basically needs to double year over year, meaning Tesla has to ship two million units in 2022.
With all that focus on producing cars, do you really think there are any resources left to cater for the people who have already given Tesla their money by buying a car? Take Steven Salowsky's case, for instance. The man needed a new seat for his Model 3 due to an issue with the airbag (so a safety-related problem). However, he had to wait more than a year for service because there were no parts available. During all this time, however, Tesla was building hundreds of thousands of Model 3s that had the exact same part that Steven was needing. Priorities.
Well, it may seem now like this strategy is paying off seeing how Tesla is fresh off its best-ever year, but if it stays the same, it will ultimately bring the company's demise. No, it's not because it'll run out of new customers - more people are getting their driver's license each year than Tesla will ever be able to build vehicles. Plus, Musk talked about the importance of keeping the birth rate up, so I imagine a lot of his more ardent followers have already heeded his warning and started doing their part by producing as many little Stans as they can.
The real problem is that when you get so many disgruntled customers, their voice will eventually become so loud, it will be impossible to ignore for all those considering the acquisition of a Tesla. At the moment, it's still relatively easy to dismiss any critics as "oil shills" and "shorters", but as their number grows, maintaining this conspiracy rhetoric will prove impossible.
In fact, the house of cards is slowly starting to crumble already. More and more supporters of the brand are starting to take off the rose-tinted glasses they've been using to look at the company through so far and see the real problems a lot of existing customers are facing. They're also beginning to realize that FSD Beta may be a lot further away than what Tesla is painting it as so before you know it, the spell is gone, the veil is lifted, and the EV-maker is exposed for what it truly is: just another company trying to make as much money as possible.
It helps not to think of Tesla in a vacuum, either. The EV maker may have been virtually alone at some point, but that's rapidly changing. Fans are doing their best to dismiss the "threat" posed by the rest of the industry by focusing on the ever-diminishing number of advantages offered by Tesla products (and ignoring the negatives), but the fact of the matter is the number of competitive alternatives on the market is increasing every year.
Take the Porsche Taycan, for example. OK, it may be more expensive, but it's also in a completely different galaxy when it comes to build quality and finish, two things a lot of customers will value more than 0-60 mph acceleration (which it's reasonably good at, too). Sadly for the German electric sedan, it falls severely short compared to its Tesla rivals when it comes to maximum range. Except it doesn't.
Tesla did a great job exploiting the EPA's testing methods to get a favorable estimate, whereas Porsche couldn't care less. As a result, the American vehicle will fall short of meeting its official figures in the real world, whereas the German one will exceed them. The result? Virtually identical range figures (297 miles for the Porsche Taycan and 310 miles for the Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD, according to tests performed by InsideEVs).
And then there's the Lucid Air. Assuming the startup manages to mass-produce its battery-powered sedan, the Air's powertrain would put Tesla in a position it's never found itself in so far: playing catch-up in the EV game, an area it has dominated from the beginning (even if by a lesser margin with every passing year).
If Tesla was indeed a company focused on steady, sustainable growth, then it could very well establish itself as one of the industry's main names by making sure its products were well-built and its customers well taken care of. Instead, the current model points toward a short-lived, flash in the pan type of approach where the primary care is the stock value - when that comes tumbling down, so does the rest of the company. It all depends on which comes first - the stock collapse or the change in approach. There's still time for the latter, but it looks like Tesla has no interest in doing that. Either that or it's doing a hell of a job hiding it.
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