What exactly is Teslas technology advantage? Pure electric cars are fundamentally simpler cars than both ICE and of course hybrid models. And most other brands had hybrid models for a long time. I seriously doubt any established car manufacturer longs for Teslas technology.
They have some advantage in drivetrain technology. Their switched-reluctance permanent magnet technology is probably at least a couple of years ahead of the competition.
Compare the efficiency of their vehicles (especially the Model 3), to something like the I-Pace or e-tron.
But Tesla’s real advantage lies in it’s software, it’s autopilot, it’s economies of scale in battery production, and it’s supercharger network. Competitors will eventually catch up with all this stuff, but it won’t happen overnight.
The range/efficiency advantage really isn't much of a differentiator once you reach a certain number. Most people simply aren't doing long road trips.
Software isn't that special and some companies far eclipse it e.g. Volvo Polestar 2. Autopilot is a death trap so no advantage there. Supercharger network is definitely a big one but not for much longer.
Efficiency is critical for the success of any electric car, and will continue to be for a long time. The reason being that batteries are only just beyond the cusp of being viable for cars in terms of cost, weight and volume.
Most established carmakers haven't yet realized (in terms of adapting their engineering) that this, combined with the very high conversion efficiency of electric motors, means that electric cars get much greater advantages from efficiency improvements than ICE cars do. Single-digit improvements to efficiency in motors, inverters/power electronics and aerodynamics/roll resistance translate almost directly to single-digit improvements in range. And hence also allow smaller batteries, cheaper construction, lighter construction, which again allows a smaller battery.
You can see this very clearly in Audi and Jaguar's models, that have significantly lower range than Tesla's cars for each kWh of battery capacity.
> Software isn't that special and some companies far eclipse it e.g. Volvo Polestar 2.
I have actually not seen a working prototype of this software. All videos I have seen just show a dummy screen with nobody actually using it. Do you have a source you could post that explains how this software far eclipses the Tesla software?
> Autopilot is a death trap so no advantage there.
Could you explain this more? All data I have seen shows Autopilot is much safer than a human driver.
> Could you explain this more? All data I have seen shows Autopilot is much safer than a human driver.
This is why I get annoyed when somebody argues that Tesla doesn't do false marketing. Why would this guy think that autopilot is safer than a human driver, when they aren't even comparable. Why would you compare an assistance system to a human. Isn't that done to imply that autopilot is actually driverless?
According to manufacturing analysts Munro & Associates, Tesla's electric motors are significantly ahead of the competition. A lot of detail and engineering has gone into squeezing efficiency and performance out of the Model 3. Just because electric motors are simpler than ICE doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.
The other piece of technology Tesla has is the driving data from all those cars on the road already. This is an important asset for autonomous driving because machine learning benefits from greater volumes of data.
Neither one of these puts Tesla so far ahead of the game that the competition can't catch up. But they're real advantages that could keep Tesla in the game if they can sort out their manufacturing process.
