Big 3 Or Government Blocking?

Ty said:

I, for one, am looking forward to the "Mustang inspired" Electric SUV that Ford is working on. Ford and GM may not be the first companies you think of when you think electric vehicles but they DO know how to manufacture a crap-ton of vehicles without all the "production hell" drama that Tesla brings out.

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While I acknowledge Tesla has having growing pains drastically increasing production...it's not as though GM and Ford haven't had extremely massive recalls for the "crap-ton" of vehicles they've produced...and they're century old companies.

I would buy a Tesla over a GM or Ford product every day of the week...but I certainly welcome more EVs to the market.

johnsnownw said:

While I acknowledge Tesla has having growing pains drastically increasing production...it's not as though GM and Ford haven't had extremely massive recalls for the "crap-ton" of vehicles they've produced...and they're century old companies.

I would buy a Tesla over a GM or Ford product every day of the week...but I certainly welcome more EVs to the market.

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Im very interested in seeing what Tesla brings to the table with their new EV pickup. Specs could be very impressive, but more importantly, I want a truck that is designed from the ground up to fit its goals. Ford/Chevy/Dodge, they all produce very capable trucks, but the overall design of the vehicle isn't specific because of multiple powertrain and other options. You end up with large gaps in space, parts that are thrown together, or adjustments made to the design to just make it work. For anyone that has seen a breakdown of the frame/battery/motors of a Tesla, I was very impressed on how the "guts" of their cars are very purpose designed.

If Tesla decides to fall short on its promises, or designs a mid-sized truck instead of a full sized one, my next truck will most likely be a new Sierra 1500 AT4 3.0L Diesel.

johnsnownw said:

While I acknowledge Tesla has having growing pains drastically increasing production...it's not as though GM and Ford haven't had extremely massive recalls for the "crap-ton" of vehicles they've produced...and they're century old companies.

I would buy a Tesla over a GM or Ford product every day of the week...but I certainly welcome more EVs to the market.

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Oh, hey, I wasn't calling Tesla out for faulty vehicles and definitely not for quality. No. I really like the company and cars. I'd get one in a heartbeat if I didn't need my truck so much and actually could justify another car to my wife... No, I was calling out their production hell -- the shortfalls of their production line and their inability to produce more than 5,000 vehicles per week. For instance, Ford produces 2,307 F150s per day, every day including weekends. Now, that's just averaging 71,537 F150s per month into days.

But, they also produce 6,000,000 vehicles per year. Ford can produce a lot of vehicles and has this whole opening factories and producing new models down pat. Unfortunately, they've been really slow on electric vehicles but I think that's going to change in a hurry. I would imagine that as competition heats up, Tesla will have a harder time turning a consistent profit.

Tesla got a dose of reality. Even though they had already been making cars, when you crank up the volume there's a whole list of other issues. Even seasoned manufacturers run into production hell with new plants or assembly lines. It's that they can get it taken care of quicker and they are not under the microscope of the press. Nobody cared that VW was late 3 months on the Atlas due to their production hell. I will tell you that if you think Paul looks stressed wait until they fire up their production line. He will have a year of production hell just like Elon had. It's easy to outfit a factory, running it is a whole different story.

I will tell you that if you think Paul looks stressed wait until they fire up their production line.

Paul is never going to be in a position to fire up a production line

It might take a miracle for Paul to be standing at an assembly line - but miracles do happen sometime.

Never is a mighty big word.

84mpg said:

It might take a miracle for Paul to be standing at an assembly line - but miracles do happen sometime.

Never is a mighty big word.

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With probably 5 to 8 million bucks in your pocket and no more headaches?

I’d bet on ‘never’ especially on a new automotive project.

You bet on never..... I prefer to hang onto maybe.

Life is pretty miserable without a little hope

If everyone, but particularly Paul, was more a realist maybe we wouldn’t be in the miserable predicament we are in now.

What is all this about conspiracy, lack of hope, and miserable predicaments? Elio never presented any threat to the government, the oil industry, or the auto industry. At "worst", Elio would have been competing for government funding. Elio's failure to produce should not affect anyone's hopes in life. There are far more important things in/for which to have hope. Hopefully nobody put their self in a miserable predicament over this.