You may not like the styling, fine, my point was that the battery pack evidently has about the same energy density. You were claiming Audi et al. could not compete with Tesla because of battery energy density. My personal belief is that Audi et al. will cause significant competitive challenges for Tesla.
Styling is subjective.
That's a personal belief. But is that belief grounded in fact? Hmmm...let's see...the Audi e-tron was suppose to be delivered to customers a year ago and it's still nowhere near being ready for deliveries. Delayed. Again. E-tron pre-orders? 20,000. Model 3 pre-orders? nearly 500,000. 500,000 > 20,000. By a factor of 25. Ouch.
https://electrek.co/2019/02/09/tesla-model-3-cost-surprise-porsche-audi-reverse-engineering/Later, a report came out about a German automaker being impressed by Model 3 after reverse-engineering it.Now a new report from Germany’s Manager Magazin (German and paywall) includes a deep dive into the state of Audi with comments from executives and insider sources.It claims that Porsche and Audi, who are working together on a next-generation electric platform, had to change their approach because the cost was too high compared to what Tesla is achieving.They report:“The Porsche and Audi engineers have to change [the PPE] because Tesla’s Model 3 has gotten better than they thought.”
The next-gen platform called Premium Platform Electric (PPE) was greenlighted almost two years ago
Premium Platform Electric (PPE) was greenlighted almost two years ago and it is expected to be ready around 2020 or 2021.According to the new report, the first version was coming at about 3,000 euros too expensive, which Porsche is said to be able to absorb but Audi wasn’t on board. They believe that they need to lower the cost in order to be competitive with other upcoming EVs.The battery cell cost is apparently the biggest factor that pushes the cost of the platform higher and Tesla claims to be leading the industry on that front.According to the report, Audi and Porsche could delay the PPE in order to improve the cost and be competitive with Tesla.The PPE is becoming increasingly important for Audi according to Manager-Magazin’s report, which describes a failing e-tron program:The e-tron as the first electric Audi is not only late. It does not reach some target values and has become far too expensive with more than two billion euros in development costs. The approximately 600,000 cars sold for the break-even are now regarded as an illusion.
The e-tron electric SUV was supposed to be delivered to customers last year, but Audi says that software issues have resulted in delays.The German automaker is still planning several other vehicles based on the same platform before the PPE becomes available.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So....Audi/Porsche reversed engineered the Model 3 in Feb and shit their pants. They found they are 3,000 euros- basically $3,500 - behind Tesla on a shared Audi/Porsche PPE platform that is still 2 years out. Yikes. Sounds like it's gonna be delayed. Again.
Styling is subjective. Ok.
Coolness factor, cultural impact, demand, brand value, customer loyalty/retention, innovation, sales #'s aren't. GM has nothing to show there with the Bolt. Tesla is destroying their face off and eating their lunch. Tesla is the iPhone to GM's Microsoft Windows Phone.
Really, the only thing GM has over Tesla is the production capacity and a bloated marketing budget to peddle their shit cars that deep down no one really truly wants. GM can produce millions of cars a ear with ease while Tesla struggles mightily to produce even 200,000 a year. GM's marketing budget? $3-4 billion a year. Tesla's marketing budget? $0. They don't have one. If Tesla had the manufacturing infrastructure in place to produce the cars at scale and a $3-4 billion a year marketing budget to peddle cars that people already want and love and think are cool- well they'd put GM out of business. GM is doing a dandy job putting themselves out of business as it is anyway.