The future competition for Tesla - and what about Apple?

[tinggoda]

Today I read this article A Primer: Electric Car Competition For Tesla 2017-2020 - Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) | Seeking Alpha about tesla's coming competition in the following years.

Why will Tesla win the battle vs all the other giant car companies in the EV sector? And what about the Apple electric car project? Apple has enormous capabilities as we all know.

Tesla has had a head start, we have the visionary Elon Musk, but is it enough?

 

[durkie]

I'm personally not worried about Apple -- over the past few years they've given me more and more of an impression that they don't know what they're doing. They're following similar formulas to what has worked for them in the past, but there's no vision.

Look at their cash stockpile, which has enabled a stock dividend. I feel like any company giving a dividend is basically saying "we don't know what to do with this money, so...maybe you do? here you go." it's even more egregious for a company like apple, being so manufacturing focused.

i would love for them to surprise me, but i find their products in recent years to be either ho-hum or somewhat disappointing. they can certainly make nice-looking things with high repeatability and tight tolerances, but i'm overall not convinced that they can be relevant in the EV space, at least in the short term.

 

[RobStark]

The latest reports say Apple is no longer pursuing a complete car but autonomous systems and UI tech to sell to Automakers.

Everyone else does not have the brand power of either Apple nor Tesla.

They are behind and falling further behind by the day as Tesla accumulates real world data.

Tesla doesn't need 100% market share to be wildly successful.

20% MS in North America. 10% in Europe and 10% in China and Tesla becomes the most valuable company on Earth. MS in other regions is a bonus.

 

[ggr]

I'm sure there's a better thread to post this, but can't figure out which one... anyway.

I just got an email from Land Rover about their new Range Rover "Velar". The thing they tout in the text, and first detail in the video, is flush door handles that pop out! Wow, who'd have thought of such a thing? The handle has a button on it... I guess to lock and unlock. ;-)

 

[azred]

Can we assume anyone who starts a thread based on Seeking Alpha is a Tesla short and should be stoned? Or at least we should get stoned before reading it?

 

[neroden]

Today I read this article A Primer: Electric Car Competition For Tesla 2017-2020 - Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) | Seeking Alpha about tesla's coming competition in the following years.

Why will Tesla win the battle vs all the other giant car companies in the EV sector?

Oh, well, in the very long run, 100 years plus, they won't, of course. (Look at the history of Ford and GM!) The question is, how long is the long run?

First, all ICE cars have to disappear. There is no "electric car market"; there is a "car market" and ICE cars are inferior to electric cars, purchased only because they are cheaper.

So until all the electric car competitors are producing enough to satisfy the global car market -- roughly 80 million per year -- they aren't really competing with each other.

After that... well, Tesla already has a lead, because Tesla has a Supercharger network and they don't. So they have to build that.

At that point, we'll probably settle down to a world with multiple car companies. Tesla will be one of them. Tesla now has a strong brand name so they will be able to sell cars profitably on that for many years to come even if they do fall behind technologically (look at the history of GM!)

Right now Tesla has a gigantic lead. I believe we will have a lot of warnings and evidence when Tesla's lead disappears, and we will certainly know when the ICE car market disappears. At that point, TSLA might turn out to be overpriced. But I'll worry about that when we get within three years of it, and I strongly believe that we aren't there yet.

 

[hockeythug]

Don't worry about Apple. They can't even make headphones anymore let alone a car. As a long time Apple user it is sad to see what the company has become.

 

[tinggoda]

Thanks for all the input on Apple durkie/RobStark, that makes me more comfortable.
Haven't heard about Apple not pursuing to make a complete car. It makes sense though.

neroden, Thanks for explaining the bigger picture! I believe you're right.


azred, There is no need for stoning me
Really, I am new here and I'm just looking into all the diffrent articles I come across. I guess that Seeking Alpha isn't a good source for bullish Tesla news...
I was surprised to hear about all the competition out there.
I am a shareholder since last year, mostly because I like Elon so much after reading the book by Ashlee vance.

 

[LargeHamCollider]

The latest reports say Apple is no longer pursuing a complete car but autonomous systems and UI tech to sell to Automakers.

Everyone else does not have the brand power of either Apple nor Tesla.

They are behind and falling further behind by the day as Tesla accumulates real world data.

Tesla doesn't need 100% market share to be wildly successful.

20% MS in North America. 10% in Europe and 10% in China and Tesla becomes the most valuable company on Earth. MS in other regions is a bonus.

This.