You mean, everybody and their brother can throw stones at Tesla when they miss their self-imposed deadlines but it's OK if VW misses their self-imposed deadline of 2020 and we should just shut up and wait longer?
Indeed.
While I admit your random insertion of whataboutism into this discussion might be considered Presidential these days, that doesn't change its fundamental logic, based on the very juvenile approach of justifying bad behavior with bad behavior. If you believe its shitty for people to make up dirt on Tesla (and I do) why do you feel compelled to make up dirt on other manufacturers? Seriously, there's plenty of mud to throw at VW already.
I don't know why you put "established" car companies on a pedestal above Tesla. Look at the late to market Jaguar iPace. They announced the first production vehicles rolling off the assembly line back in November 2017 and in March 2018 claimed the production line was going smoothly, that they were not in "production hell". And yet, as of the beginning of December 2018, they had produced a total of only 4,663 iPace for the entire year to date! Tesla makes that many Model 3's in about 8 days!
First, you and I both know I'm not putting other companies on a pedestal, so thanks for that. Second Jaguar is a niche automaker that produces like 30-40k cars a year total. That is what they're sized to produce. So no--they did not go through production hell with the ipace, specifically because they did not put themselves into a position to do so like Tesla did trying to massively increase production with the Model 3. That does not make them better, that only means Jaguar only bit off what they could chew with the ipace. What's going to blow your mind is that's not a slight on Tesla. That's just reality.
None of the established companies would even attempt to make an 'X' or a '3' with 320 mile range for $50K.
So don't try to lecture us here that those ICE legacy makers won't have a production hell.
Sure.
So, beyond your hopes and dreams, what actual evidence or information do you have to suggest that ANY of the high volume OEMs (Ford, GM, VW, MB, Toyota, Nissan, etc.) would have anywhere near the magnitude of "production hell" as Tesla did getting the Model 3 line up and running. All of those other manufacturers already have well established processes to turn on new production lines for hundreds of thousands of units. All of those other manufacturers already have well established processes to turn on high volume supply chains. All of those other manufacturers already have well established processes for developing new technology which will ensure that the only major new thing--batteries--maintains acceptable development progress.
That you wish to ignore the fact that everyone else already knows how to do high volume doesn't make it any less true.
And how many EVs have VW (which makes a million ICE cars a year) churned out so far? It is easy right?
There's one thing all of those manufacturers do WAY better than Tesla, and that's to
care about profit. Don't conflate their limited to-date EV products with their ability to figure out EV technology. When a car company can make more money on EV than ICE, you can absolutely bet they're going to put their ducks in the EV basket, and you can absolutely bet that they're going to succeed in making a profitable product.
My post has a link saying that the Model 3 has a WLTP range of 544km (338 miles), which is only about 10% more than the EPA range of 310 miles. In fact, the difference is even smaller according to Tesla's new European configuration page, which gives the WLTP range as "530+ km", which is about 329 miles or about 6% more than the EPA range.
