Excellent article about Tesla competitors

[James Anders]

Tesla will not have any true competitors until one of them starts to install "superchargers" ala Tesla.

 

[Chuq]

It looks like he's going to be opening the Superchargers up to other car manufacturers on a small *per hour* basis,

How would this work, considering the superchargers don't have any infrastructure to meter usage? (swipe card, license plate camera, induction loops underground)?

 

[tkizzy]

How would this work, considering the superchargers don't have any infrastructure to meter usage? (swipe card, license plate camera, induction loops underground)?

The car can have that information programmed into it's charging port and it can talk to the supercharger. Ofcourse if the cars are connected, like Teslas, then that information can be retrieved remotely. Either way, Tesla could demand cars use whatever their spec is in order to have access to superchargers, and that would be further incentive for other manufacturers to adopt the standard, which would lead to more tesla style plugs available via network effect.

 

[wallet.dat]

Tesla will not have any true competitors until one of them starts to install "superchargers" ala Tesla.

They're not even at the infrastructure part yet. Seems like everybody else is still hamstrung by their propensity to design an electric car that intentionally tries to look different than a regular car. Whereas Tesla designed the Model S to intentionally look like, well, an actual car.

 

[drinkerofkoolaid]

Any potential competition for Tesla is going to run into at least 5 problems. There are many other problems other automobile manufacturers will encounter, such as legacy costs and contracts, but these are things that would probably be the most difficult to overcome.

1) The Model 3 will be released in 2017. Model 3 variants will probably be released in 2017/2018.
2) Permits for charging infrastructure.
3) Tesla's chargers are free. Tesla's competitors are relying on charging infrastructure produced by third parties, and charge to use it.
4) By the time any other company is able to match what Tesla has today and is ready to deploy the technology (assuming it ever happens), Tesla's vehicles will already by able to receive a full charge in 10-20 minutes, and Tesla will have Superchargers and destination chargers blanketed across every country.
5) Costs associated with maintaining and servicing legacy vehicles.

 

[ZachShahan]

I'm probably too late to the party here, but in case not: thanks for the share, @Grendal! And, @Zythryn, I agree with you that convenience is likely to be 1 of 2 main EV benefits that drive the EV revolution (no pun intended). I think the other is instant torque and an overall better driving experience. A couple of pieces on these below.

The Other #1 Reason Why Electric Cars Will Dominate The Car Market | CleanTechnica

The #1 Reason Why Electric Cars Will Dominate The Car Market | CleanTechnica

And I love the graph at the top of this piece for explaining "instant torque" of EVs to people:

Fastest Electric Car On The Market, Plus #2–10