[victorbstan]

Of price dumping. Nice vision.

[rajbot]

Every company sells their first electric car at a loss.

The first Roadsters sold for $110K and the BOM alone was $145K per car. No one accused Tesla of price dumping.

[api]

Maybe but battery prices have been falling geometrically and that’s the most expensive part of an EV.

A tidal wave of cheap EVs are coming, and not just from China. Ford apparently has a secretive cheap EV platform project in development. I’m sure there are others.

BTW I have a hypothesis that Elon is now working to get Trump elected because Trump will erect tariffs not just against cheap EVs but cheap batteries that domestic competitors to Tesla could use. If companies like Ford can buy cheap CATL batteries then that’s just as bad for Tesla as China selling EVs here.

Tariffs will only delay though. The hyper deflationary effect of tech is coming for cars. A car is just another tech gadget that is about to get cheap. Car companies that don’t optimize for this will die or collapse down to niche.

Edit: I will make a wild prediction. In five years you will get a 250 mile range small EV with adaptive cruise and other nice features for under $15k new.

[panick21_]

If Trump erect tarrifs against cheap EV from China, China can do the same in return hurting Tesla. A trade war isn't at all a good idea for Tesla.

[bryanlarsen]

Trump won't protect Elon. BYD is going to build cars in Mexico to take advantage of the USMCA. Stopping that would require Trump admitting one of his greatest accomplishments was flawed.