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Comment by neals | Hacker News Reader

So if we put 'branding' and 'we love Elon' aside, where does this put Chevy and Tesla on the map of innovation and competition? Is Tesla still years ahead? Or has Chevy bought enough tech to have a comparable/better offering?

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I would say Chevy is years ahead because not only are the Bolts they are building today going on sale before the end of the year[0], they have years of experience and billions in assets designed to help them build cars. Tesla says the model 3 goes on sale "late 2017". By then we'll have the 2018 MY Chevy Bolt, which could be just as good or better? Or cheaper?

[0] http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gm-starts-producing-200-mile-2...

One difference is that the Bolt has a permanent magnet motor while the Tesla has an induction motor. A PM motor is more efficient than an induction motor since the stator doesn't have to do the work to create a magnetic field in the rotor, so theoretically you should be able to get more distance per unit of battery energy than an induction machine. On the other hand, I think induction motors are cheaper than PM motors.

From what I can tell, the Tesla is better by every metric aside from potentially not being available as soon. Cheaper, faster, better tech, nicer interior, better range, faster charging, better charging network, the list goes on. And let's not forget the huge bonus of not having to go through dealership bullshit.

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