I just want an inexpensive commuter that gets ~150 miles per charge. I live in a cold climate and I work about 25 miles away, so I need at least 75 miles range on the coldest days. I also want it to be cheaply repairable, so the battery pack needs to be inexpensive to replace.
Tesla isn't offering that, their battery packs are too hard to service and too expensive. So I'm going to keep driving my hybrid until someone makes something to replace it.
Those Chinese sodium-ion batteries look like the perfect solution. Inexpensive, enough range, and less fire risk. My company says they'll be putting in chargers, so I might be willing to go down a bit on range. If Elon wants my business (he probably doesn't), he needs to make a cheap commuter.
I don't think you've actually read any of the comments in this thread. Everything is a legit discussion of EVs and how Musk is handling this. Nobody is bashing China. If anyone is being criticized in this thread, it's Musk.
All those that claim this market belongs to China, Tesla already has production in China, and can use all the same benefits Chinese companies can. Including government subsidies.
Outside companies almost never get the same benefits as local ones, that's true even outside of china. Another thing is that china has national interests in chinese carmakers.
Tesla needs to make a certain substantial profit margin, same problem as Apple's car project. BYD will sell at a loss for years to monopolize like Amazon/Walmart etc.
That's all it takes for you? Get a motorcycle, all the acceleration you could ever want, at a fraction of the cost. You can go so fast it will feel as if time is slowing.
in fairness they did get their charging cord to be made the standard for North America. Not sure what power that confers them but it has to be worth something.
It happened to Blackberry, everyone had one of those until iPhone came out. IBM used to be the most common PC brand. Everyone used to drive minivans. Markets shift all the time.
