LA once made the mistake of buying Chinese EVs (specifically, BYD) for its Metro bus system.
Literally none of the buses were still roadworthy within a year.
It turns out we weren't the only transportation agency to make that mistake; every American transportation agency that has purchased BYD vehicles has terminated its contract with BYD and most agencies are seeking refunds for failure to deliver under contract.
This will probably be interpreted by many (and the media) as a downside for Tesla, but IIRC one of Tesla’s stated goals has always been to drive the entire marketplace towards electric vehicles.
In this sense, they have succeeded beyond most people’s expectations.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 36.9 ms ] threadAnd this is just the first major automaker to enter the EV market in force with non-compliance vehicles.
Literally none of the buses were still roadworthy within a year.
It turns out we weren't the only transportation agency to make that mistake; every American transportation agency that has purchased BYD vehicles has terminated its contract with BYD and most agencies are seeking refunds for failure to deliver under contract.
https://www.thetransitwire.com/2018/05/22/problems-plague-by...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/30/warren-buffett-backed-byd-st...
In this sense, they have succeeded beyond most people’s expectations.
With that strong demand it's pretty sensible to sell the cars near where they manufactured.
We can only truly gauge demand for Tesla in Europe once Giga Berlin production starts at full steam.
Not much for five million people. More relevant is that over 80% are homeowners, and I assume they have garages where they can plug in.
See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25645838