Tesla delivers 'historic' $311m profit | Hacker News Reader

Tesla delivers 'historic' $311m profit

bbc.co.uk

31 pointsgadders5 comments

This is definitely a good sign for them, but "One swallow doth not a summer make." They still have to deal with other car companies getting into the electric car market. It will be interesting to see new developments as other players get in; I guess we will see how innovative they are based on what unfolds.

I think right now more companies into the electric car market will benefit them, since it is an electric vs. fuel scenario and it will go on that way for a couple of years.

People said the same thing about the iPhone. Fact is that Tesla has a lock on their battery supply chain and it's a huge competitive advantage.

Show me who are investing in battery capacity and I'll show you Teslas competitors (when they get it online)

Meanwhile traditional car manufacturers are competing against their existing gas models. Classic innovators dilemma stuff.

I really want to see Tesla succeed. Not because I'm a huge Tesla fanboy, but because I'm an EV fanboy.

If Tesla fails and goes bankrupt, I think other car companies will take it as a signal that EVs are not viable in the market and will abandon any plans to make an EV, and we'll stuck with ICEs for at least another decade.

> It will be interesting to see new developments as other players get in

I'd really like to see more competitors in the performance market. AFAIK, Tesla the only manufacturer producing a true EV (Not a hybrid) that goes 0-60 in under 4 seconds.

I love smaller, lighter, more agile cars. I'd love to get a 2-door EV sporty coupe, but the Roadster is my only option there at $200k. I'd probably be satisfied with the performance of a Model 3, but it's a full-sized sedan, and I like my more compact cars. I drive a BRZ right now, which despite being quite small, still barely fits in my garage. I also really dislike Tesla's design choice to eliminate dash boards and mechanical buttons for things like climate controls in favor of large touch screens that suck to use while driving.

Hopefully as Tesla builds up, other car companies fill the market with more options.

And hopefully they make them compatible with Tesla's charging network. I'd really hate for public charging infrastructure to end up fragmented due to competing standards. If I understand things correctly (And please correct me if I'm wrong), Tesla made their patents public a couple years ago so that this wouldn't become an issue.

I'm an admirer of Tesla and enjoy a P85D.

I'm curious about what Tesla will do to new car sales (across the industry) as the sold fleet ages. Traditional car companies intentionally balance their costs against consumers proclivity to buy new cars in the 4-8 year range. As such, they'll spend $10 less on a part that goes to 100K miles instead of 500K. These Teslas are going to last longer that people realize and won't age out as early as other cars. How will that impact new car sales?

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