The I-Pace was the best selling car in the Netherlands last month. In second place? The Tesla Model 3. Now, I've been saying for years that Tesla is going to start feeling the burn when the major automakers make plays into its turf, and it looks like that's starting to happen. Obviously, this is a small sample size, but I think we're going to see Tesla start falling behind. What do you think the future looks like for Tesla, with Jag and others coming to eat its lunch?

 

Tesla's real value is its Supercharger network. Within a few years probably one of the majors ( BMW, MB, VW) will swoop in and pick up the company and either absorb it or run it as a separate brand .

 

Agreed.
After owning the I-Pace for the past month and signing up for charging time with my employer's ChargePoint stations, I've noticed an annoying dichotomy between Tesla cars and all the others.
All Tesla cars have access to the SAE J1772 charging stations but non-Tesla owners are locked out of the Supercharger network. So I have to fight with all the Tesla owners for charge time at work.
Until we get ubiquitous access to DC Fast Charging networks Teslas will always have the advantage for picking charging locations.

 

Tesla's Supercharging technology is open source. They dropped the patents years ago. The big auto manufactures could have used it, but chose not too. My bet is ChargePoint and others that profit off of charging had something to do with it.

The real strain on charging stations, IMO, is plug in hybrids. Many just use them as up close reserved parking.

 

"The real strain on charging stations, IMO, is plug in hybrids. Many just use them as up-close reserved parking", agree I've found that particularly annoying. There is also some kind of strange protest where pickup truck drivers are parking in Tesla charging spots and blocking people from using them to charge their cars. https://www.businessinsider.com/truc...otests-2018-12

 

This does make them very attractive as a purchase, given how strong the pivot toward electric cars is...