Hacker News Reader

Comment by tootie | Hacker News Reader

What a weird perspective. EV _startups_ are losing their luster, but they don't even mention the fact that total EV sales are rising and it's largely due to legacy players like Ford, Chevy, Kia, Hyundai releasing the first plausible competitors to Tesla. The EV startup market was always considered a long shot. Nobody expected even Tesla to be able to stay competitive once the big players got into the game. It took longer than expected, but it's happening now. They left a big enough opening for Tesla to reach a degree of scale, but I'd bet against anyone else disrupting this market in the next 10 years. Why put your name on a year long waitlist for a Rivian when you can buy a Ford now?

View on HN

I hope some of the "startups" stick around because the Polestar 2 we bought last year is the best car I've ever owned, and when we go to replace our second car it will be a Polestar 3.

Polestar is a Geely brand, which is about as far from being a "startup" as you can get. Much of the underlying technology is shared across the Geely portfolio and they've been a global EV leader for some time.

More than that, Polestar is a Volvo.

Polestar is not really a startup though, is it? Without the expertise of car building, those "startups" have little chance of success, and Polestar is a good example of combining startup-like mindset with production know-how and capability of an established manufacturer.

> Polestar is a good example of combining startup-like mindset with production know-how

That describes every startup that wasn't founded by an 18yo college dropout.

No, they have the production facilities, network and know-how of Volvo. Most startup have nothing like that.

I agree with your comment, except the last part. I cancelled my f150 lightning order because they told me I wasn’t going to get a 2023 and they raised the price by $7500.

You can't actually buy a ford now either.

Some Ford dealers actually have Mustang Mach-E vehicles in stock again but most are charging additional mark ups in the $14K range. You'd have to be really foolish or desperate to pay that much when equivalent gas vehicles are so much cheaper.

Yeah, mark ups like that are why I canceled my Mach-e order in 2021. Tesla charged me what I saw on my order, which was refreshing at the time.

One of Tesla's underappreciated advantages is that because they were completely new, they eschewed the dealership model. Every legacy manufacturer is inextricably wedded to the dealers. At least in the US.

I've seen a lot of used Mach-Es too. In fact it's amazing how many people will wait 2-3 years for a brand new car that fits exactly what their ego asks for vs just going out and buying a used version that fits 80% of their requirements.

Used ones generally don’t have the tax incentives, which can be quite lucrative. Incentives where I live are over $13k on new EVs like the Mach-e

Reply on news.ycombinator.com