The end of Tesla

If you are paying attention to Tesla news you know that last few months Telsa has provided quite nice financial initiatives to make Tesla more appealing to customers. Initially, they had 0.99% APR on Tesla Model Y financing and it would save quite a lot of money. Later they made several similar initiatives for Model 3.

And one would state that these initiatives are aimed at making Tesla more attractive to potential buyers. But Tesla never did them before, so what changed? And this is an excellent question that I will try to answer.

I don’t think that demand is in decline. An EV provides a lot of advantages over a traditional ICE vehicle. For people who own a house, an EV is just excellent. Your car will be always full, there will be no service and a lot of fuel savings. And EVs drive much better than traditional cars and they are quieter inside. I honestly don’t know why anybody will buy an ICE car when they have a home unless they need to travel a lot.

But if everything is fine, why Tesla needs to stimulate demand? And the answer is very simple and it is because of the CEO of Tesla: “A recent poll conducted by the New York Times found that many EV owners connect Tesla with Musk and vice versa and that the racist, xenophobic, transphobic, and homophobic views that he shares online have influenced their decision to buy EVs from other brands”.

I think it is the right moment to review EVs from Tesla. If you buy a Tesla, you will need some time to adjust to it. Stupid door handles, no frame around a door and you need to learn to avoid touching glass when closing the door. There is no handle inside to unlock the door and instead, you need to press a button.

You cannot swipe your leg under the back bumper to open the trunk. The speedometer is close to the center of the console and many physical buttons are missing and you must use a touch screen. There is no button to unlock all doors instead you have to hold the button that opens the driver’s door from the inside.

I can continue on and on but I would like to be quite clear. There is nothing critical about any of that and anybody can easily adjust to it. But adjustment will be needed and this is a critical point because it means instead of enjoying a new car you need to learn how to do basic tasks and it is frustrating.

But there is almost no adjustment needed when I’m renting a car. Some controls are slightly different but in general, everything is very similar to my Honda Accord 2014 or any other traditional car. The same gear shift, the same indicators, the same AC and wiper controls, etc.

And I would like to state that Tesla's approach is not just different. Any traditional car overall has better controls and is much more convenient to use. The difference is not that big but it is still there.

To place it in perspective, I would never buy a Tesla if I could get an electric 2014 Honda Accord. I’m not a person that doesn’t like anything new and in fact, I’m quite the opposite, but after doing the same things in Tesla and Accord for almost 2 years I can clearly state that controls are much better in Accord.

And the new trends in Tesla’s designs are even worse than this. All the above is inconvenient but it mostly does not affect my driving experience. But in Model 3 they removed stocks and as a result, made it even more inconvenient. But this time it is inconvenient to drive.

Also, the Tesla CEO didn’t like to work as CEO until he got a $60B bonus because otherwise “he is not motivated enough”. I would like to add that instead of working on cars Tesla is doing Robotaxi, robots, self-driving, and other things that nobody cares about. And they are not just doing it. Effectively CEO bets the whole company on the success of these side projects. I would say that the chance of success here is very slim but they dedicated a lot of resources there.

But why people are still buying Tesla? And the answer is quite simple: everything else is way better in Tesla. Tesla’s cars are more powerful and way more efficient. For some reason, nobody else can make an efficient EV.

I don’t know why this is so big problem for traditional auto makers. But as a result, Tesla needs a smaller battery and it is cheaper. As a side effect, it charges faster and cheaper to drive. A secondary reason is that Tesla has a charging network that makes the only Tesla suitable for long drives. For other EVs, it is just a pain for your money.

Nevertheless, the other automakers are improving and there are some interesting models. They are still not as good as Tesla but they are much better than what we saw before. Moreover, I see more and more non-Tesla EVs on the roads.

To summarize all the above, Tesla is a big compromise. It has quite questionable design decisions but it is fun to drive and it is very efficient. On the other hand, traditional automakers make cars that have traditional controls but they are weak and not efficient. Often they are more expensive. And what is sad, some of them are trying to copy Tesla's design.

Anyway, sooner or later traditional automakers will catch up and will make their EVs more efficient. They will get cheaper batteries. Somebody will invest in a charging network. And Tesla at the same time will head deep into some unrelated projects and as a result will fail.

I will be dramatic and I would say now is a pivotal moment for Tesla. If they missed opportunity here it could be the end of Tesla. My advice to Tesla – fire the CEO. He will be the main reason for future failure.