I think a large part of it is cultural: Tesla is seen as a tech company, and we root for tech companies. Especially when they're seen as "disrupting" and taking on entrenched companies in an industry. Personally, I do think it's a bit exaggerated. But on the other hand, I think that Tesla did help the EV market bloom a bit faster than otherwise would have happened. Other car companies did know about EVs and some even experimented with EVs before Tesla (see: GM EV1), but the fact that Tesla started profiting off of this market segment made other companies want to enter the market segment earlier rather than later.
Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers? I know of the Chevy Bolt and nothing else. Are there others you're thinking of? I mean, that's one car, which generally seems to be reviewed along the lines of "not as good as a Tesla, but hey, at least it's not a Leaf" — so although it is great that somebody else is doing it too, it seems pretty fair to say that Tesla is still leading the charge here (pun not intended, but it did make me smile).
Even if you like the Bolt better, AFAIK that's literally the only long-range EV that isn't a Tesla. So if you like EVs, you kind of have to cheer for Tesla, or else you really just like one EV.
How about the BMW i3? The 2017 gets 120 miles to a charge and for a bit more money you can get an onboard generator to bring that up to 300 miles IIRC.
The driver assist capabilities aren't as great but otherwise can't think of much to complain about.
I personally love my i3... I get about 120 miles on pure battery, but once the range extender kicks in I get about 40 mpg on a small 3 gallon gasoline tank.
It actually works out pretty well, because 99% of my driving is well within the 120 mile all electric range, it's super quiet, and accelerates at any speed! For the 1% of the time I need to go on a longer trip (longest so far is about 250 miles), I simply treat it like a motorcycle trip and fill up gas every 50-60 miles, after exhausting the battery.
Huh, I'd just get two 5gal gas cans and call that good, as I'd rather not stop off every hour to get gas at varying prices and levels of quality.
Plus, in good chunks of Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas its easy to go nearly that far without seeing another building, let alone a gas station. There are wind turbines on the ridgelines tho, which are pretty.
I wouldn't consider it to be in the same class. 120 miles is much closer to the Leaf (which is widely dinged for its paltry range) than the Bolt or any of Tesla's cars.
And the range when burning gas seems kind of beside the point to me since we're talking about battery electric vehicles here, not cars that run on gas. (Like, my 2010 Prius gets 450 miles, but that's because it isn't relying on its battery and instead mostly uses an ICE, and for that reason it isn't usually considered in the same category as the Bolt.)
I..... don't think that's a fair argument to make though. The leaf can't go anywhere when it's out of battery power AND the battery range is short. The Prius PHEV has a very short electric range so you'll mostly drive it on gas (and as far as I've heard, there are speed limitations on battery power). The i3 goes pretty far on battery power, farther than the leaf on battery, but as well you can add gas to get to the next charger and get back to battery power.
Arguably, I'd say the i3 is closer to the bolt than any other EV.
Not the OP, but I personally root for Tesla because they're the ones pushing the envelope when it comes to EV cars. If it wasn't for Tesla's huge popularity, it is doubtful we would ever see mass-market adoption of EVs.
That said, it's clear that innovation can come at a cost, as we read in the article. Tesla handled this very poorly. If I were the author, I would have taken them to court, despite being a huge fan.
They had multiple out of pocket expenses due to their supposedly "no defects found" Tesla. Rental cars (they were half way across the country from home and Tesla's idea of a rental option was "cannot leave the state you are in"), etc.
What other great EVs are there? The only one I know of that comes even close is the Bolt, and it has no decent road trip capability and poor driver assistance features.
Tesla's bypass of dealers is another point in their favor.
Because they kicked off the movement (at least the full EV one), are leading on automation as well, and because they're made in America. I'm sure there are good reasons against, but those are a few pros.
Because Tesla makes the sexiest one, duh! ;) AND is being produced by the first new auto manufacturer "startup" that has a shot in hell of a continued existence.
(Disclaimer: I own one. I also used to own a Volt, which was nice... but there is no comparison, frankly. I think the Bolt looks cool, and I generally think pure-electric technology is the way to go... if we keep applying pressure to the battery problem, it will keep getting better and better, same as every other technology in history)
Many of the other companies are doing it because they are forced to by government regulation, often termed "compliance cars". By putting it all in on EV Tesla has more skin in the game. They've certainly achieved more in the past, and it looks likely to continue in the future, even when up against models that are effectively subsidized by petrol and diesel models.
> Great EVs are starting to appear from other manufacturers
Where? Leaf is ugly and has crappy driver UI and limited range. i3 is ass-ugly, has terrible UI (as is to be expected given the manufacturer), Bolt is so-so, the best of the bunch and even it doesn’t have OTA updates.
As far as I’m concerned, nothing comes even close to Tesla with its huge charging network, actually good software and UI and regular car-improving OTA updates.
(I have nothing but good experience with their service, personally, in multiple locations. It’s not perfect, waiting times are long-ish, it’s a 4h drive each way to get there, but they are proactive and treat me better than any other service before. The sale process, that was another story closer to this article, and I’m scared shitless of crashing the car and not totalling it, but still, I love having owning a Tesla and wouldn’t go back.)
I am impressed with Elon Musk and his accomplishments, no doubt. But this is not even close to the worst Tesla customer service story I've heard. The company is a nightmare. The only state you can even SEE a service manual for these cars is in Massachusetts where they mandate it by law, and you have to pay by the hour to see it! There's huge issues that haven't been tested in court with how Tesla treats these cars as "their cars" even after you buy them. Refused to activate salvaged and repaired vehicles that you have the title for, calling and threatening you because they detected you dared tinker with your own car, etc.
I really want to like Tesla, but as long as they treat their cars like a service rather than a product, I'd be terrified to invest my money in one of their vehicles.
You own the Tesla hardware. You do not own the software. You're also not forced to buy one. You're also free to write your own software for the vehicle to bypass Tesla.
While that may be technically true, I do not know if that will hold in court, as currently Tesla owns a monopoly on software that runs on Teslas, and they disable their software to prevent the legal owner from using their own vehicle. I suspect this is wholly illegal behavior, and I really look forward to seeing it get tested in court.
While this grey area has generally survived in smaller items, I suspect a car, where you literally have a title to it, is not so defensible under that claim. Especially when they also make it effectively impossible to repair the hardware outside of their company as well.
Not everyone, but we're definitely a minority waiting for the world to catch up. Stories like this sometimes help, but also bring out all the apologist in droves...
