Elon and Tesla are starting to change peoples' thinking

[AndrewHW]

When I first got to know about Tesla just a few months ago, I know then that this is a amazing company led by a visionary leader. And then, as I followed Elon and the developments more and more, something changed in my thinking. I began to see how visionary and talented Elon is, why he have to do this, and the mission of Tesla.


But more than that, we have started to envision the future together with Elon about when it will come, how it will happen, and what needs to happen.


I realise that Elon has already started a change in a lot of people. As we understand more, we have started to believe in Tesla's mission and are helping Elon and us (as this is also what we all believe in) to accelerate the transition to electric vehicle unlike anything we have seen happening before.


Here a short list of what people are doing (1) uploading youtube video of review on Model S, on Supercharging station, and sharing our driving experience (2) become a free-advocacy of EV trying to persuade the mass (3) and supporting Tesla in our own ways whatever way we could. We are feel like part of the Tesla team!


You could find - in this forum, news, seekingalpha - more and more each day people writing about the future of Tesla and EV (and the two goes together). There is just no serious discussion about EV without Tesla. There are more and more people who believe in the eventual transition to electric car. For me, I believe the tipping point will be sometime in 2017-2022 and people will realised by then, and this is what we have believe in since 2013.

 

[J1mbo]

While I agree with the sentiment, I mean no disrespect when I wonder if you have ever been part of a car enthusiast community in the past. You normally find lots of people there who feel very passionately about their "thing", be it a Leaf or a Subaru.

Speak to anyone outside the Tesla community and you usually find mild interest, similar to that you find when discussing other cool but unattainable to the average Joe things, like Wayfarers or LaFerrari. So maybe a bit off the mark, but I hope your stock continues to do well for you.

 

[lolachampcar]

The big difference I am finding with the enthusiasts community concept is that we are reaching outside our community to educate. I ran into a Panamera owner in the line to pick up my daughter the other day. I rolled down the window and offered the Panamera driver a test drive. I would not have done that had I been driving a Ferrari

 

[jerry33]

Speak to anyone outside the Tesla community and you usually find mild interest, similar to that you find when discussing other cool but unattainable to the average Joe things, like Wayfarers or LaFerrari.

Although this is sometimes the case, it's mostly closer to what the OP indicates. An example: A few months ago there was a solar home tour, one of the stops on the tour was a public library. Of course, there were all kinds of normal library patrons besides the few folks who went just because of the tour. There was a lot of excitement about my Model S from the regular library patrons.

 

[Merrill]

I agree with all of the above, but there still is not enough info out there to the general public about EV's and Tesla. (Except when the word fire is mentioned). I was talking to my neighbor who drives 2 Prius hybrids and has solar, but still never new that Tesla had supercharges and they are free to all Tesla owners. Went out last night for dinner downtown and parked the car in front of a restaurant where people were sitting outside having a cocktail and as I stepped out of the Tesla there comment was "what kind of a car is that, it is very beautiful". I said yes not only does it look good it is all electric and requires no gas. I hope as the EV market matures that more people will figure out that this is a realistic alternative to driving without emissions or fuel. Let's hope Tesla can come through on the mass market vehicle.

 

[ecarfan]

I agree with all of the above, but there still is not enough info out there to the general public about EV's and Tesla. (Except when the word fire is mentioned). I was talking to my neighbor who drives 2 Prius hybrids and has solar, but still never new that Tesla had supercharges and they are free to all Tesla owners.

Agreed. I have only had my Model S for a month but of course talk to everyone I know about how wonderful it is and about what Tesla is doing. No one I have talked to knew that Tesla is building a nationwide network of charging stations, how fast they charge at, or that right now a Model S owner can drive from San Diego USA to Vancouver Canada and pay nothing to charge. Everyone is shocked when I tell them that.

Now think about how public education about Tesla is going to grow exponentially over the next few years as more owners talk and people tell their friends who tell their friends...

Over the next few years public knowledge about Tesla is going to grow to the point that by the time the Model E / Gen III car is for sale demand will so far exceed supply that Tesla will be production constrained for years to come even as other auto companies slowly introduce EVs that will to some degree be Tesla competitors. Sure we haven't seen any serious direct competitors yet, but in a few years BMW will have a genuine Model E competitor, and probably Nissan as well. Not betting money on GM getting to that point by 2017...

 

[AudubonB]

The forum's token Alaskan Bush Rat chiming in here.....

Last week we hosted for four nights a friend escaping another wretched Alaskan winter for a few days. He is even far more a diesel-head than I ever have been; his fleet of just his family vehicles usually runs to an Excursion or two; quite a number of F-250s and -350s, and the F-550 boom truck. So he was naturally expecting me to pick him up at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport in my F-350. He also runs a company that is highly dependent on not only Alaska's oil patch, but also its one large coal mining firm.

I knew this was going to be fun....although, frankly, I expected more than a little flak from him. He gets in and, after a moment, starts looking around, says a couple of "nice car" comments, and then, confused, asks very tentatively if it were a Lexus????

I shake my head.

I keep coy for the next several questions, like when he asked if it had 8 cylinders...6??....12?....16??? surely not 4???? I had a few hundred yards clear, so I gunned it. He, uh, expletived.

"WHAT IS THIS?"

So, when I said Tesla, he had never heard of it. "What country is it from?"

I can't remember when I've had so much fun!

Regardless, the point of all this (other than sharing all that fun!) is that before we'd even left the metropolis, he had undergone Saul's conversion to Paul. One of the "this is the needed transformation from oil" types.

By the end of the long weekend, he not only had 'sold' one Model S to a Bigger Fish back in Alaska, just by his phoning and texting him, but had contacted another half-dozen such folks and seems to be a bigger proselytizer than anyone on this forum! This from someone who hauled several million gallons of diesel around Alaska just in 2013.

I cannot think of a more substantial example of changed thinking than that.

 

[772]

Ha! Great story AudubonB. If it holds true, maybe Alaska will get its superchargers sooner than you think!

 

[ToddRLockwood]

While I agree with the sentiment, I mean no disrespect when I wonder if you have ever been part of a car enthusiast community in the past. You normally find lots of people there who feel very passionately about their "thing", be it a Leaf or a Subaru.

Speak to anyone outside the Tesla community and you usually find mild interest, similar to that you find when discussing other cool but unattainable to the average Joe things, like Wayfarers or LaFerrari. So maybe a bit off the mark, but I hope your stock continues to do well for you.

That said, I am amazed at two things:

• The recognition my Model S gets as I drive it around town. You can tell by people's expressions that they know what it is, and the response is universally positive. This, from a company that has done no traditional advertising.

• The leagues of posters who come to Tesla's rescue when a negative or uniformed article about the Model S hits the Internet. They seem to now outnumber the naysayers, which was not the case a year ago. (Remember the New York Times debacle?) I'm also impressed with the level of knowledge these posters have about the car and the technology, especially given that very few of them are owners themselves. This is the Internet doing what is does best—educating and boiling the public discourse down to the fundamental truth.

 

[Mario Kadastik]

I agree, the level of recognition is absurdly high even here in small Estonia where I'm the only one driving a Tesla. I see people stop in walkways or check the car out at a pedestrian crossing only to remain locked with the car and almost walk into poles. People give me thumbs up from all kinds of cars, but mostly (!!!) from SUV's and big guzzlers. I've had a few times people ask me to roll down the window to ask a few details at red lights (usually too short to get too extensive) and the fan club I created on Facebook EXACTLY 1 month ago now has 1310 followers (only about 90 are my facebook friends). That's .01% of the entire population of Estonia. While there are a few skeptics on some Estonian internet forums majority of the reception is positive and people are saying that this is a car they'd buy to replace their ICEs if only they had the money. So I'm guessing the coming ~10-20 cars in the next months will substantially boost this awareness as they start to drive around more and more and the market will be prime for large adoption of Model E.

 

[AndrewHW]

I should have mentioned that I am not a owner of a Tesla, nor part of the owners community and not even drove a car before (the last point is actually not so rare from where I came from).


While I am not a owner, I believe Tesla's mission is for the good of our future and I want to educate the public and contribute in my own ways. I am happy to read your stories here and do keep it coming to share. There is so much good already happening but we are not aware unless someone shares them. I did noticed the replies here are mainly from owners. Maybe there are also non-owners with interesting stories to share?


Our task of spreading the message is really made easier because Elon already thought over what it takes to enabled mass market EV adoption: Safety, Long-range, Superchargers, Lithium-ion giga-factory, and putting it altogether into the Model S and future iteration of cars.


We all have a common goal to see mass public moving to EV, with Tesla as the obvious platform. I begin to see this is gaining momentum and the question of transition to EV is no longer a dream but a matter of time.

 

[brianman]

When I pulled into the Corning supercharger yesterday, my inner dialog was very negative (personal flaw) regarding a truck that I saw parking at a supercharger spot. I almost felt compelled to educate them on the spot. But I held off.

I then backed my vehicle into my intended spot, plugged in, got back in my car, and watched them a bit.

The driver was giddy about taking a picture of his truck, pretending it was a gas station nozzle.

I can't imagine anyone ever doing this at a J1772 or Chademo charging location.

 

[ecarfan]

When I pulled into the Corning supercharger yesterday, my inner dialog was very negative (personal flaw) regarding a truck that I saw parking at a supercharger spot...The driver was giddy about taking a picture of his truck, pretending it was a gas station nozzle... I can't imagine anyone ever doing this at a J1772 or Chademo charging location.

I can't imagine why that truck owner thought that a photo of his ICE "pretending" to get gas from an SC cable was amusing.

 

[ThosEM]

I can't imagine why that truck owner thought that a photo of his ICE "pretending" to get gas from an SC cable was amusing.

Perhaps he was anticipating getting his hands on a Tesla pickemup truck?

 

[ABVA]

Perhaps if you guys can organize or contribute by participating in events like "TeslaRoadTrip 2014" it will definitely promote public awareness. "TeslaRoadTrip 2014" is a grass root effort that started out small in 2013 by some exceptional believers, and has taken a life of its own in 2014 (expecting close to 100 Teslas from all over US east coast, some of them are driving to Washington, DC from as far as South Florida, Chicago, Boston etc.) Just in case if some of you are interested here is the link:

@TeslaRoadTrip 2014 (Feb 15-17, 2014 ) - Final Schedule Hotel Information

or visit: @TeslaRoadTrip 2014 – “All Superchargers Lead to DCâ€￾

 

[bonnie]

Please don't cross post threads.

 

[lolachampcar]

really???

 

[Ludus]

Some very cool stories from owners going out of their way to promote the car. This thread made me aware that I've noticed a number of others here in different threads. What other car inspires this sort of thing? This might make for an interesting Youtube channel or something. Just stories from and about owners promoting the car on their own.

 

[bareyb]

Welcome to the forum AndrewHW. I know we all hoping to see great things happen for Tesla in your part of the World. It's gotta feel pretty good that they are not planning on doubling the price like the other Lux car companies have done. I hope they sell like hotcakes over there.

 

[nwdiver]

1 year and ~30000 miles. I think half my co-workers expected my car to be dead by now... can't wait to get to 10 years and 300k miles to prove the rest of 'em wrong