Elon Musk Article

Elon Musk Artic

le After a few years of building the largest private company in the history of humanity, Tesla Motors had its “Elon-level” IPO on NYSE and became one of the most valuable companies with a market capitalization of $800 billion to date. Then this thing called “Tesla” started doing things that were completely unexpected from what it was initially created for. It is now worth at least twice as much because people saw through his facade. But this wasn’t just any car. This was an electric sports car, not only for personal use but also for business. And yes, even if you are thinking, why would I buy that? Well, let me tell you exactly how big the mistake he made turned out and we will get back to that later on. Let us go directly to the Tesla CEO himself! First and foremost, Elon, your current strategy needs revision, as more and more competitors are coming up. In the last 6 months there has been a lot of news about another competitor who is going after your sales in India. Is it true or fake news? You may say no, but don’t forget about China, where your competitors have already launched their cars. As we know, Tesla is actually based in California and all these other countries are very busy trying to take over the Chinese market. Nowadays, China has become the biggest automotive destination in the world and that’s something that everyone can see. So why would they bother launching an EV over here, when they can do it just by copying the existing models here? Of course, they are going to try creating some sort of product which gives them the differentiation to win over their rivals. The good thing is though that no other company is taking advantage of this opportunity. They are focusing on making sure the production runs smoothly. For instance, General Motors CEO, Mary Barra, said she will be working closely with Tesla to help them create a new type of vehicle that combines design and engineering excellence into one package. Now don’t look too impressed, but the fact is GM is still struggling to recover from the recent downturn. Why should Tesla invest in reinventing itself and producing a model only meant for luxury goods? Yes, because the goal is clear. We all want to own our first SUV and never had a compact vehicle. In a way, it gives the perception that Tesla wants to build something which is different from others. Yet again, to prove some claim, nothing wrong with that. Although, this time they did it by copying the success of Chevrolet. What was needed to make that happen was a whole different approach. However, since they didn’t have enough resources, they decided to rely mostly on manufacturing facilities on US soil. That means they had no choice but to start selling those cars to Americans. If you think this is bad enough, consider the following statistics. According to Forbes, roughly 1 million American drivers still prefer to drive their vehicles overseas. To put it bluntly, they want to be able to purchase anything and everything in the country with ease. Unfortunately for them, these EVs aren’t really ready yet, so there isn’t even a chance to sell a decent quantity. Not many manufacturers have this capability and this situation is getting worse every year. There are reports that Nissan, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, Volvo, Dodge, Fiat Chrysler and Mazda have set their sights on entering the Indian market. These brands are extremely famous for designing premium family vehicles and most probably they want to take over Jaguar Land Rover, Hyundai Venue, Kia Grand i, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes Benz, BMW, McLaren… Okay, okay. Sorry. Let’s move on. Now that EVs are becoming more popular and there is demand in the form of used ones, the race to bring innovation to the category is getting stronger every day. Tesla has released three types of products: Roadster (not available in India), Cybertruck (available in India) and Full Self Driving+ (available in the United States). With each of those models having various power ratings and additional features, it appears like Tesla needs four to compete against the top 3 brands mentioned above. On the other hand, the competition seems tough. At this point, the question arises. Since Teslas aren’t exactly affordable for consumers, wouldn’t it be better to wait for cheaper offerings until such a moment comes? Shouldn’t the Tesla owners get a second option so they could test the quality of Tesla models without spending thousands on the pricier Model S, X, Y and Z? Again, there is a big difference between the price tags of Teslas and FSD+. All these products belong to the same flagship line, and most of the high-end customers already chose to stay away from this brand, so why should these two lines clash? Maybe to show that Tesla isn’t concerned with providing low-end models, but rather with delivering higher performance and style. Let’s face it. People nowadays want something unique. Just imagine how easy it would be to come up with a similar kind of offering from their rival brands. By giving buyers multiple options, the Tesla owners would never get bored of owning a single sports car. Every once in a while, there are models which deliver excellent acceleration, braking and handling characteristics. Don’t pretend you haven’t thought about that for a while, but surely Tesla doesn’t seem interested in bringing that technology. Instead, they are looking forward to using these vehicles only for entertainment purposes. Who knows, maybe a couple of years down the road Tesla will invent the next generation of aerodynamic vehicles and we might find ourselves a super sports car to enjoy together. Well, the bottom line is, this is a serious issue and if you want to beat the rest on the road, change the direction of both of your strategies.