If you’re a longer term Tesla follower cast your mind back to March 2016, Tesla were about to display the mass produced Model 3 for the first time and the small (by today’s standards) Tesla fan base were salivating at the thought of a reasonable cost electric vehicle with the style and potential performance of the Tesla Model S. Anyone who had been for a drive in a Tesla product were excited, Legacy auto were not, Tesla was just background noise while they continued building vehicles with 20th century technology. As far as Legacy auto was concerned Tesla was just a niche product purchased by fanatics, the customer base was small and would soon dry up. 48 hours after the Model 3 reveal Tesla had over 300,000 deposits for the model 3, a car many would not receive for over 3 years, that was the last time Legacy auto would underestimate Tesla.
Anything Tesla announce on battery day will gain the full attention of the worlds car makers and likely lead to massive investments in research and development in an attempt to keep up with Tesla, the winners out of this will be the worlds car buyers.
Tesla battery day could bring a battery with better energy density, a battery that will have a useful life of well over a million kilometres, possibly a battery that can be charged at a far faster rate than currently available. It could be none of the above and it still won’t matter, Tesla only need one breakthrough and in the eyes of the fence sitters waiting to buy an electric car a Tesla goes from almost as good as ICE to slightly better than an ICE in total cost of ownership, it doesn’t take much to tip the scales for good.
So what is the most likely announcement on battery day? Amongst many small advancements I think the important one will be faster battery production allowing more efficient use of the facilities and factory workers that will lead to lower costs per kWh of batteries. This reduction in cost may only be 15 to 20% but that’s enough to create the tipping point necessary to assign the internal combustion engine to history.
I’m waiting to see what’s to come. I believe Tesla is the right company and Elon is the right person for the long game in the transition of a number of areas in all our lives, be it Transportation, Internet Access, Space travel, AI, and other areas of Science & Technology not yet delved into.
I have been reading about Tesla and the roadster before, and but my name on a reservation list for the Model S, but couldn’t pull the trigger on an unknown delivery date, or cost back then, I drove my first Tesla Model S in 2013-14 when I lived in Toronto . Once I drove it, I knew this is where things were headed. Fast forward a few years, I moved to WA, and in 2016 I waited, just like you, for what was coming next from Tesla in the Model 3 announcement. I again, placed a reservation for a Tesla, this time knowing it would take at least 3 years for them to make their way to WA from North America and then the Eastern states of Australia … and I was right. That same year I purchased a Lexus and told the sales person that this was a place holder vehicle until my Telsa arrived, he looked puzzled and surprised at the thought of my comment, and if that was even going to happen. I sold my Lexus the same week I picked up my Performance Model 3 and haven’t looked back, only forward to the next thing.
Tesla is in it for the long haul, and are adapting, upgrading and updating as I type (Enhanced Auto Pilot upgrade will be installing shortly 😉 The Naysayers and critics may not like the way does things, to the styling of cars even, but they are missing the bigger picture, Tesla isn’t a car company, it’s a vertically integrated machine with only one of it’s outputs being clean, electric vehicles. There is so much more.
I’ve seen this before, I’ve worked in an industry where I’ve heard the comments and snickers before. I persevered in that industry until not too long ago because once I used their product and understood that it was about the whole user experience from start to finish, or “cradle to grave” as some might call it, I was convinced it was the better route to take … that company was Apple, and that product was the Macintosh.
Tesla has very much the same feel and approach to “how” and “why” they do things.
I’ll leave you with 2 links that talk about why, and the other about the changes in transportation that are coming and have started. I hope you find them inspiring and informative.
Simon Sinek:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA
Tony Seba:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y916mxoio0E