About clickbait

Recently I watched this video that has the title “Hyundai Is Putting Tesla To Shame...What Happened?” and decided to watch it. I saw a few other videos from this channel and I got a very good impression. Right now I want to buy a new EV but I’m somewhat reluctant to give my money to Musk. Also, I know a few people who were happy owners of Hyundai cars. So everything was telling me to watch this video.

But that video turned out to be quite strange. In the beginning author stated that Korean cars have a quite bad reputation and have a lot of issues with reliability. Especially with engines and transmissions. And these are the most expensive parts in your car and they are hard to service. Ok, good to know that they are not reliable.

The next part was about Genesis a luxury brand of Hyundai that they created to separate from the poor reputation of Hyundai brand. I don’t really understand how it would help if the car quality is bad. People actually know who is making Genesis, so I don’t see who it helps.

Anyway, then there was a story that eventually everything moved to China. TVs were premium products and they were built in the US. Then Korean companies started to make them and they became cheaper. And finally, it was moved to China.

And then in the author's opinion, the same will happen to cars and right now we are in the process of moving everything to Korea and Hyundai should overpass Tesla. This happened because electric cars are simpler and as a result, the author thinks that it will be easier for Hyundai to make electric cars. But anyway, eventually, everything will move to China. The end.

I immediately spot a few issues in his line of thought. Firstly, yes TV production was moved to China, but only recently China started to have Chinese TV brands. And this didn’t happen naturally and this was a result of the Chinese government heavily investing in these companies and heavily subsidizing them. And still, they are not really good.

And TVs are quite simple. There are no moving parts and there is no service required. Lastly, they are not expensive. As a result, many people opted in to buy cheat Chinese TV. If it stops working then they will buy one more and often it will not be more expensive than buying a TV from a reputable brand. But if Chinese TV continues to work then you will save a lot of money.

The next thing is that the Chinese cars are quite bad. Yes, they can copy looks, but they cannot resist and cheap out everything. And again, the government put a lot of money into them.

Lastly, it is not only about cars. The building car is only one side of the story. Repairing and servicing them is also quite a big part. And it is not very easy to do. Imagine a phone that is not repairable. It will be much cheaper to make but very expensive to repair.

Also, car manufacturer needs a lot of service centers and trained professionals. And after they stop making this car, you will need to keep spare parts for many years to come. If you are not doing all that, your car becomes very cheap, but then your customers will be in a lot of trouble.

If we go back to Hyundai, they had issues not because it is super hard to make engines or transmissions. Other manufacturers are doing it just fine. The issue is that they need to make them cheaper. Otherwise, customers will go to proven manufacturers. And because they don’t have any serious know-how, most of the time they have to make risky moves with new technologies. And we all see results because often, that risk wasn’t worth it.

And there was nothing in that video about Tesla and shame. The author just assumed that somehow Hyundai could make electric cars cheaper and better. Yes, engines are simpler, but other parts are more expensive. Especially software and there are plenty of other places to mess up. It is the main reason why making electrical cars is so hard. So I don’t see how Hyundai will make it cheaper while keeping them good. Maybe eventually but definitely not any time soon.

In conclusion, I really want to see a good competitor for Tesla. I’m fine with having a car that is worse than Telsa but that is considerably cheaper. I don’t need a glass roof, premium sound system, or even leather seats. I and many other people want workhorse to go around. Unfortunately, right now Tesla is king almost in all segments. Yes, it is possible to buy a cheaper car but it will be much worse.