
Tesla's Latest Competitor Is a $15,500 Electric Three-Wheeler - T-A
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-12/tesla-s-latest-competitor-is-a-15-500-electric-three-wheeler
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ravedave5
No, no it isn't. This is competing against the Yaris or a low priced Kia,
maybe. Maybe you could call this a leaf competitor, but probably not.
Actually, the best comparison may be that it's competing against mopeds and
bicycles.

Saying this is a Tesla competitor is click-bait.

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stonogo
The headline and you are both mistaking Tesla, a car company, for its
products, the cars. This car company is an electric vehicle manufacturer who
is planning on making a roadster. This model is not a Model X competitor, but
this company is absolutely a Tesla competitor... or it might be, if it doesn't
turn out to be yet another of at least four failed three-wheeled car companies
in the past decade.

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kwhitefoot
It might be competing but it isn't going to win. If there really was a big
market for small three wheelers there would already be a lot more of them on
the road.

And anyway even in Norway you can buy a used (less than a year old, less than
2k miles on the clock) 2019 Mitsubishi MiEV for 18.5 kUSD
([https://www.finn.no/car/used/ad.html?finnkode=140199983](https://www.finn.no/car/used/ad.html?finnkode=140199983)).
That's a lot more car and you can have it now.

Edit: just looked at the web site and you can get a new one for about that
price: [https://www.mitsubishi-motors.no/i-miev/#!section-
cc](https://www.mitsubishi-motors.no/i-miev/#!section-cc)

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dominicr
In a situation where commuters are incentivised to drive electric cars this
could do quite well, but it's passenger limitations really limit the market.
You can't drop off the kids at school on your way to/from work. Making a two
seater version might really increase it's market share.

In Oslo fuel cars are expensive to drive into the city, but you can park an &
charge an electic car cheaply or free, without paying tolls. Some people buy
old & tiny first generation electric cars to travel in and out of the centre.
So this would potentially have a market in Oslo as it looks much nicer than a
Buddy car!

And yes, lazy click-bait headline writers: if it's electric then it's
competing with Tesla. When competition requires more equivalence than both
companies produce products with wheels and electric motors.

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thatgerhard
1\. It's not even remotely a competitor, it's like saying BMW C1 is a Mercedes
Benz competitor.

2\. It's just a reliant robin with an electric motor

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kwhitefoot
It's not even that. Del Boy's van had a lot more cargo space.

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thatgerhard
Agreed

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vmednis
I've always thought of these glorified mopeds as suicide boxes. There's no way
you could survive a crash against a real car in this thing.

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sunstone
Considering that you can get a Prius C for about the same price (or a regular
Prius for 50% more) this product is going to stay pretty niche.

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stoobs
Nope, it's not, it's more like a spiritual successor to the Sinclair C5 than
anything else.

