Being a fan or supporter of a company doesn’t mean supporting 100% of its actions 100% of the time, or only saying 100% positive things about it 100% of the time.
I’m surprised Electrek is getting so much criticism because it’s a Tesla fan/investor site that virtually never questions or criticizes anything Tesla says or does. Electrek acts like it’s Tesla PR. And Fred has a big conflict of interest because he owns TSLA and gets referral prizes like a free 2020 Roadster. So, Electrek is now getting flak for publishing one critical thing?
CleanTechnica is like Electrek but seemingly even more extreme. It recently published an honest-to-God conspiracy theory attributing negative Tesla articles to a secret plot (based on as little evidence as any other conspiracy theory). I have really enjoyed some of CleanTechnica’s technical articles and I respected what they were doing, but for me it really jumped the shark with the conspiracy theory.
Maybe this is the corrupting influence of money... When you have a lot of money invested in a stock, and you obsessively watch the stock price day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute... You become obsessed with making money and you get angry at anyone you perceive as getting in the way of you making money.
Throw in some pseudoscience like technical trading, and that’s just more fuel for the fire.
Um I don’t recall the article in question.
But it is 100% verifiable that oil and gas are promoting anti-Tesla on social media.
It is not a “conspiracy theory” when anti Tesla ads on social media say “promoted by Exxon Mobile.”
It’s simultaneously not a “conspiracy theory” against EVs in general when you consider the actions of nationwide dealerships hiding, lying about, or not carrying their brands EVs.
Dealer tactics stall electric car sales
It’s common sense; dealerships business model requires service revenue at high margin, and EVs require much less service. It isn’t a conspiracy, it’s businesses protecting themselves as they should. If I owned a business and a threat to it existed I would resist, wouldn’t you?
Both of these groups; oil and gas, and dealerships in general, stand to lose tens of billions if EVs are rapidly adopted.
Here’s why: in the most conservative cases, 1 year of Tesla production at 7000 vehicles per week will cost regional oil and gas companies not one penny less than 1.7 billion dollars. That’s every year any ev maker puts out 7000 vehicles per week.
“Why is there fud?
If Tesla produces 7000 vehicles a week.
And we were to fill those 7000 vehicles full of gas - 15 gallons per vehicle to fill them up for the first fime.
We would need 105,000 gallons of gas every week - or roughly 11 full semi tanker loads - just to fill the cars for the first time. More than 1 tanker per day is eliminated from regional demand.
At $3 per gallon this would cost $315,000. Every week. Just to fill tanks for the first time.
Over 52 weeks of this level of production the cost to fill the cars for the first time is 16 million and would require over 600 semi truck loads of fuel.
Assuming conservatively, owners only keep these cars 3 years and only fill up each 10 days, In one year of production Tesla eliminates 108 trips to the gas station for the individual, and almost 40 million trips for a years worth of individuals.
Those 40 million times somebody isn’t putting 15 gallons of gas in their car at 3 dollars per gallon costs gas companies 1.7 billion dollars.
1.7 billion dollars worth of gas over three years eliminates the need for ~65,500 full semi trucks of gas.
Before Donald trump gave substantial cuts to oil and gas this amount was Exxon Mobiles annual profit.
And if gas is more than $3, average consumers fill up more than once per 10 days, Tesla owners stay electric longer than 3 years, or Tesla produces more than 7000 per week...well it’s all multiplicative. If gas doubles in cost then the amount removed from gas companies doubles. If Tesla then doubles production that new number doubles again.
And none of this can ever go back to the gas companies. No Tesla owner can decide to use gas in the car. It’s a permanent loss.
That’s why there is fud. It’s going to start a death spiral.
Because it isn’t just Tesla and it isn’t just a year of production.
-Ben Price, October 2018”
The death spiral are the hundred billion dollars of debt for thousands of oil rigs, refineries, transportation infrastructure, etc., which represent an enormous fixed cost on the industry. There is a tipping point for these organizations just as there is for Tesla. Tesla just swung to the good side of theirs, and oil and gas in the region will head down to their tipping point. Then the only business recourse is to increase prices which only helps EVs more.
