Tesla's mission is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling electric cars to market quickly. In that end, they have been rather successful, as they indeed have compelling electric cars and other manufacturers have been upping their game in electric transport as a result. However, none of the other manufacturers have yet put in enough effort to be real competition for Tesla, so there is a limit to how successful it has been. It would be better for all in the automotive market if there was some real competition for Tesla, but their isn't.
And I'm perfectly fine with that.
Why? Because Tesla isn't just a car company. Not anymore. Most of us have been confident from the beginning that an electric car future isn't complete without being paired with clean sustainable energy. While other auto manufacturers are locked into just making cars, not just be choice, but by the history and mission of their companies, Tesla has the flexibility and ambition to be something more.
Wind and solar are the clean sustainable energy that most of us want, but the Achilles heel of wind and solar has always been its intermittency. Overcoming this for the widespread use of wind and solar requires the ability to buffer enormous amounts of energy. While there are different concepts for how to do this, the one that seems the most viable is batteries. Lots and lots of batteries. While other car companies might help grow battery production as a side effect, with Tesla Energy it is part of their core business. Tesla Gigafactories will provide the batteries we need for a clean energy future, while Powerwalls and Powerpacks are the critical but often underappreciated solutions that will put those batteries into service load balancing our clean energy grid.
Looking at it strictly from an automobile manufacturing standpoint, absolutely we would like to see more competition. But looking at the bigger picture of what Tesla Energy could do to advance clean energy generation, something all the other automobile manufactures will have little if anything to do with, and suddenly the importance of Tesla transcends the entire auto industry in real and important ways.
This will continue until some other force can be competition for Tesla not in automotive but in advancing battery storage for the grid. Utility companies could drive the need, but they are largely content on staying with fossil fuels as their interests don't extend past producing cheap energy. The government could drive it, but here in the United States, clean energy is not their priority. For now, the driving force must come from private industry, and the only private industry really taking up the challenge is Tesla.
Until this changes, I am happy to see Tesla have little to no competition in the automotive EV market. At least until Tesla Energy can happily stand on it's own. And in time, I think it will. In the meantime, long live Tesla! Yes, I drink your coolaid, and boy does it taste good.
And I'm perfectly fine with that.
Why? Because Tesla isn't just a car company. Not anymore. Most of us have been confident from the beginning that an electric car future isn't complete without being paired with clean sustainable energy. While other auto manufacturers are locked into just making cars, not just be choice, but by the history and mission of their companies, Tesla has the flexibility and ambition to be something more.
Wind and solar are the clean sustainable energy that most of us want, but the Achilles heel of wind and solar has always been its intermittency. Overcoming this for the widespread use of wind and solar requires the ability to buffer enormous amounts of energy. While there are different concepts for how to do this, the one that seems the most viable is batteries. Lots and lots of batteries. While other car companies might help grow battery production as a side effect, with Tesla Energy it is part of their core business. Tesla Gigafactories will provide the batteries we need for a clean energy future, while Powerwalls and Powerpacks are the critical but often underappreciated solutions that will put those batteries into service load balancing our clean energy grid.
Looking at it strictly from an automobile manufacturing standpoint, absolutely we would like to see more competition. But looking at the bigger picture of what Tesla Energy could do to advance clean energy generation, something all the other automobile manufactures will have little if anything to do with, and suddenly the importance of Tesla transcends the entire auto industry in real and important ways.
This will continue until some other force can be competition for Tesla not in automotive but in advancing battery storage for the grid. Utility companies could drive the need, but they are largely content on staying with fossil fuels as their interests don't extend past producing cheap energy. The government could drive it, but here in the United States, clean energy is not their priority. For now, the driving force must come from private industry, and the only private industry really taking up the challenge is Tesla.
Until this changes, I am happy to see Tesla have little to no competition in the automotive EV market. At least until Tesla Energy can happily stand on it's own. And in time, I think it will. In the meantime, long live Tesla! Yes, I drink your coolaid, and boy does it taste good.
