Aren't we past when attack pieces on Tesla as a concept have any effect on the main core of buyers and investors? Only the fringe weak mushy people will be affected by any attack crap at this point, and the rest of the people need hard solid facts to sway action.
The main problem Tesla faces right now is political, and it would take an enormous amount of political evil to slow Tesla down. Everything is on Tesla's side, and Earth has everything to win from Tesla succeeding and Tesla and Earth have everything to lose by failing. The pressure on politics to have Tesla succeed are overwhelming. Probably the worst thing Tesla could do right now is gain an attitude and go after stupid politics and lose enough ground to become overly vulnerable. Tesla is almost getting so big now that it can withstand dark spots in the political geography without care. Not quite, but very nearly there. Nothing's a given, of course, but it's definitely in a particular position of relative lack of weakness, and getting moreso as it continues to increase productivity, quality, reach and product comprehensiveness.
Of course, that's assuming they stay on their path and Elon doesn't have some sort of wacky religious conversion or something akin to that.
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I felt compelled to remind Mr. Jenkins that the goal is to clear the air...something that does not come up in his opinion. The state and Federal government set the rules for creating cleaner cars, and Tesla set about to meet the need. I posted this comment on his WSJ piece:
Well.....I think Mr. Jenkins needs to take a trip back to the 60s and 70s here in Southern California to fully comprehend what the original generation of automobiles could do to the environment in which we live. A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of driving past Pasadena - this is August - and actually see the mountains! That was not possible until this state demanded cleaner automobiles...and power plants, too. California'a standards went on to shape the global automobile industry's priorities...and are cars are cleaner, safer and more efficient than ever.
I was working in Detroit in the 70s, and watched our traditional auto makers seemingly spend more time on lobbying against emission regulations than on meeting those regulations. In the process, the Japanese took over a huge portion of the market. It comes down to leadership, doesn't it?
So...how will Detroit address Zero Emission Vehicles? Fight or comply?
God, what a wonderful response, Ed Hart. Thank you for letting us see your writing.