Question: Nobel-winning economist, Paul Krugman, asks did the Tesla story ever make sense? Can Tesla Really Last?
Answer: in November 2011, I believed the Tesla hype, but in December 2011 reality started to hit.
Wandering around Berlin in December 2011, I saw a Tesla shop and thought I could get into my first Tesla, but how disappointed that was. The outside of the Model S was beautiful, but the inside had the build quality of a Datsun 1200 (actually a favourite of mine). Immediately, I thought Tesla has to get its quality up if it is to retain its first mover advantage. In July 2016, Tesla opened a Sydney store and I thought let’s have another look. Well the interior quality was just as bad as in 2011, but even worse was the chassis and drive-train, sans bodywork, on display. The welding on the aluminium frame looked like the robot was programmed to replicate a drunken first year apprentice. At this point, I was certain the Japanese or Germans were going to eat Tesla’s lunch.
However, then came Full Self-Driving (“FSD”) vapour-ware in October 2016. Soon after it was sold to consumers as a beta product. Put simply, the software isn’t full self-driving and, clearly, is a deceptive and misleading claim in some legal jurisdictions.
If I want to pay a premium price in 2023 for an electric car, I wouldn’t buy it from Tesla (the most expensive car company in the world on most metrics). Better to buy one of the other car manufacturers.
In summary, Krugman is correct: you need more than hype!