
Tesla Motors' Model S Is Crushing Premium Car Market - doener
http://learnbonds.com/126291/tesla-motors-inc-tsla-model-s-dominates-premium-car-market/
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bryanlarsen
I guess it depends on what you count as a premium car. 5 Series, E-Class,
Lexus GS and similar premium cars crush the Model S in sales.

Sure, the Tesla is arguably more "premium" than the 5 Series and its
competitors. But it's also hard to argue that the Model S is as premium as an
S-Class.

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erikpukinskis
Yep. The problem is Wall Street won't have anything to say about Tesla until
after the Model 3 production ramp is well underway. The bets are already
locked in. We just have to wait.

But the press has to write about something about in the intervening three
years!

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saturdaysaint
I'm a fan of Tesla/Musk, but at a glance I have to question the validity of
the comparison chart, which seems to exclude a lot of cars in the Model S's
pricerange from all of the manufacturers. I'd be a lot more interested if this
included all cars by the manufacturers above the Model S's $70,000 base price.
Picking out one or two models misses that an absurd overabundance of
models/options at every pricepoint is pretty fundamental to the auto market as
it exists today. All of the makers are building an ever-expanding lineup, and
the large sedan category listed here strikes me as a niche that's rapidly
going extinct in the U.S., at least.

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listic
I very much support Tesla's spearheading of electic cars, but the thing that
bothers me most is: how well do they work in colder climate?

I never seen functioning in cold climate mentioned by Musk or Tesla
representatives. In my understanding, cold should be killing the batteries. If
Tesla has met with considerable success in cold-proofing their cars, surely
they would tell?

~~~
dagw
Tesla has a specific cold weather package and given that Norway is the biggest
market for Tesla on a per population basis and second biggest in terms of
absolute numbers, I'm guessing they work well enough in at least slightly
colder climates.

~~~
gdilla
yup. here in chilly Ottawa theres plenty of teslas doing just fine. -25C at
times,

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speg
I've yet to see one here. I've heard of sightings but they aren't so common
that you see them regularly.

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gdilla
I see them in downtown and rockcliffe park.

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SonicSoul
I thought this was link bait but after a few searches it looks like 26,566 in
2015 figure is plausible [0][1]. That's kind of impressive! I thought it was
still a niche market.

on a side note teslamotors.com is using Cold Fusion (cfm)?!

[0]
[http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/140267905...](http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ABEA-4CW8X0/1402679055x0x827135/90332B15-F6AE-4F44-B634-624BE548291E/Tesla_Motors_Q1_15_Shareholder_Letter.pdf)

[1]
[http://ir.teslamotors.com/events.cfm](http://ir.teslamotors.com/events.cfm)

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mrfusion
Does anyone know about privacy in the model s. Is tesla always tracking your
location and car stats? Is there a way to disable that?

~~~
brianwawok
Do you have a cellphone? Pretty sure you can already be tracked. Even if they
are turned off.

Best bet is to go an old car with no electronics, and wired phone to your
desk. Oh and avoid any roads that have cameras that can plate scan. May want
to wear a mask when you go to the mall too, face scanning tech is getting
pretty good.

~~~
hueving
Irrelevant to the question.

>Even if they are turned off.

Citation needed.

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amlgsmsn
>Citation needed.

>By September 2004, the NSA had developed a technique that was dubbed “The
Find” by special operations officers. The technique, the Post reports, was
used in Iraq and “enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were
turned off.”

[http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/22/nsa_can_r...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/22/nsa_can_reportedly_track_cellphones_even_when_they_re_turned_off.html)

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Shivetya
Well the very rich, as in those can afford eighty to one hundred thousand
dollar cars, usually have more than a few at hand. Tesla did well to market to
both the rich crowd who likes toys, the environmental crowd who needs things
to make them feel less guilt, and the techies who just love all things new and
cool.

You don't crush a market with the volume Tesla has. Most of the big brands use
these as cash cows. Put it this way, BMW makes a X5 and X6 which are
effectively identical but the later makes 8k more profile and they sold a
quarter million of them since inception.

When Tesla can deliver what people want to buy right now and not make them
wait then they might be crushing the competition.

As for the 3 EV. Still not seeing it, it will obsolete the S if Musk's boasts
are to believe and why would any company put out a car for less than half the
price with the main key feature being the same, 200+ mile range? Tesla doesn't
have the production capacity for it so who will be their partner? Or where
will they get the billions needed to build the production line that can
deliver in volume?

Good cars, not just sold on them being great. Sorry but 200-250 mile range in
summer is not what I consider a replacement vehicle for stats, make as second
vehicle or third.

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robmcm
If you live on a small island like the UK that range covers most trips.
However I keep expecting someone to create a roof box range extender
(combustion engine) that just charges the battery.

It will be interesting to see were the supposed Apple car will fit in, I
imagine they will go after the low volume / high margin market to start.

~~~
ams6110
Range extender as a add-on is an interesting idea. Could be done as a trailer
also. But I imagine that people who can afford Teslas will either just rent as
needed, or own a conventional car for longer trips.

~~~
robmcm
BMW offer this as an extra when buying an i3, but really you want to use your
Tesla with all it's autonomous driving all the time right!

"BMW i also offers additional mobility modules which allow even longer
distances to be covered – for example a conventional BMW vehicle can be
provided on a given number of days per year."

[https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/pressDetail.html?title...](https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/global/pressDetail.html?title=bmw-i3-concept-
coupe-european-premiere-plus-intelligent-range-enhancing-
solutions&outputChannelId=6&id=T0137344EN&left_menu_item=node__6729)

