VW CEO drinking Tesla Kool-Aid?

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by tintin

I don't doubt it, though they won't be capable - and anyway Mark, I was quoting the VAG execs who were promising this capable competitor, not another foreign upstart to their market share.

I got that; I was just joking.
Although I do suspect the Chinese will become capable competitors sooner than we might expect, and this move by Tesla to begin manufacturing in China will probably be a factor in accelerating that. Probably unlikely we'll see direct clones/copies (at least not outside of China) but I have no doubt that any skills and knowledge gained at Chinese Tesla factories will inevitably spill over into other Chinese factories, who will then build on (and likely improve) the Tesla tech. That's usually how it goes.

You're right though. VAG and most other manufacturers are barely off the starting grid, while Tesla are beginning to complete their first laps. It's going to be very difficult for most of the big manufacturers to catch up now. Perhaps they are destined to become resellers of re-badged Chinese Tesla clones!

[IT]

Originally Posted by moltuae

You're right though. VAG and most other manufacturers are barely off the starting grid, while Tesla are beginning to complete their first laps. It's going to be very difficult for most of the big manufacturers to catch up now.

^^ This.

I'm staggered that I've gone from a string of 45 Audis to a single Tesla, and can't comprehend any good reason why I'd ever go back.

Audi don't have a good EV, and they don't have a charging network. And I don't really see any plans to change either of those. Customer service is definitely on the slide too, which was the only thing they had above Tesla to be honest.

I should just take a moment to document all the issues I've had with range anxiety and running out of charge though:

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Super funny event over xmas though - Sister in law limped her car to our place on vapours, and as you can't just plug it in to charge up, I had to drive my Telsa to the local Shell garage to get a can of petrol.... What a pain. Cost 7 quid for 5 litres, or about 25 miles of juice. That same 7 quid would keep me going over a week on leccy....