There are a couple things you're leaving out. Teslas were still the first fully electric vehicles that weren't hoarded and crushed by its own manufacturer.
Tesla might have wanted to do that with the Roadster
on a few occasions given it's reputation.
you want to try and tell me that those same companies, ones whom experimented with EVs, and then subsequently burned and buried any evidence of those experiments, would have gone full electric on their own??? No, pure and simple no. Not only did they not have any interest whatsoever, but they fought it tooth and nail.
Yes, Lutz did say that the impending Tesla roadster "inspired" him to push for the Volt, but the facts remain the Volt concept came out a year before Tesla even released the Roadster, so it seems they were likely thinking about it for a while. It's hard to say how serious any automaker (GM included) even took Tesla at that point in time so I'm not sure they felt overly pressured to compete necessarily.
Like I said, competition in the segment is good, and if Tesla kickstarted the industry, cool...but I don't think for a second that the EV revolution wouldn't have happened regardless without Tesla, it might have just happened slower.
Once again, you're talking about an $8500 brake job on a $150-190k car, which is not uncommon. Its also not uncommon to not find a dealership for $150-190k cars in or around less affluent communities, so towing long distance is an expected expense and inconvenience. And the lack of currently available service centers and parts available for a car that wont be delivered to customers for what, another year? Come on. Hey, do you think Bolt parts were available last year? If Ferarri did make a $35k car hypothetically, do you not think that a dealer network would rise up almost immediately? And what makes you think that service costs on that $35k Ferarri would not be proportionate to the cars value? Think about it, you can't make a car for $35000 if the sum of it's parts are in to six figures.
An $8500 brake job is all fine and dandy on a $190,000 car, sure...not because it's still not completely asinine, but because someone who can afford a $190,000 car probably isn't too worried about that sort of cost. But the guy buying the $35,000 Model 3 sure as hell is going to care if HIS brake job costs $8500. Or $5000. Or even $2000. It's not gonna fly.
Like I said, if an automaker chooses (as Tesla has done) to dramatically change their customer demographic based on cost of the initial product, they're going to have a hard to continuing to demand the super premium parts and service fees for their new consumers who will lose their **** at the mere thought of a $2000 brake job.
The sum of the parts on any car is in the ballpark of six figures (obviously retail prices not cost). Each individual part isn't so bad, but by the time you have a bill for a few thousand parts, the sum is shocking.
A car is a car for the most part - yes, some contain higher quality parts or bleeding edge technology but "cachet" often takes far too much influence when it comes to end pricing...ie: HUGE profit margins for the manufacturers. Look at Cadillac for example - not that many years ago GM took the Avalanche, slapped some Caddy badges on it along with some other fluff, jacked the price up a metric crapton because of the Caddy "cachet", and people ate it up.
The Ford Expedition becomes the Lincoln Navigator with a much inflated price.
There's a laundry list of Honda's that become Acura's...with suddenly inflated prices.
Even Hyundai got into the game with the Genesis which they spun off into an entirely new brand now. Their price is inflated as well and they recently won the honor of the fastest depreciating car on the market, but that's another story.
How much do you think the Veyron (that sells for $1.7-2.7 MILLION USD) actually costs to build? Do you not think that there's a massive profit in there, and that much of that price is "because some can afford it" cachet?
Yes, when it comes to money, some people don't care. But do you REALLY think that the brake rotors cost Tesla $300 each, or do you think that this is a "they'll pay it because they don't care" price? Much like a Ferrari, or a Porche, or a Bugatti?
Anyhow, I'm straying off topic, but my point is this:
- Premium priced cachet cars can command premium priced parts and overpriced, inconvenient, and slow service...and the owners aren't likely to care that much. Because F-You money, that's why.
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But Bob from the widget factory who buys his first "working mans" Tesla for $40K, well, he's gonna lose his **** when he runs up against the same reality. . Tesla better realize this - as Brian has mentioned several times, the only real way to realistically service a mass market car is to open up the service experience outside your own closed ecosystem - something Tesla still steadfastly refuses to do.
