If you haven’t heard of them already, you probably will soon: Tesla Motors has been paving the way for electric cars in the past few years. While it will invariably take some time, I believe the company will grow into an empire.
Recent news surrounding Tesla has primarily been about its legal battles with dealerships. The auto dealers, who obviously hate the idea that Tesla could sell directly to customers, have been vehemently fighting its ability to do so. This is, of course, an inane battle over profits. As it stands, dealerships have significant political clout and often donate to politicians willing to listen.
Without missing a beat of course, said politicians have been leaning towards favoring the dealerships. In an unfortunate decision, New Jersey has recently banned manufacturers from selling directly to customers.
This begs the question: are dealerships at all good for customers? This can be easily answered with an emphatic “no.” No, they are not. Their constant price-gouging and scummy business tactics do nothing but inspire distrust. Sure good dealerships exist, but by-and-large the benefits of removing them far outweigh the benefits of having them.
So, you might ask, why do they still exist? Simply put, many government decisions are made by the highest bidder, and the near $700,000 given by the NJ Coalition of Automotive Retailers sure beats out the $0 given by Tesla. At the end of the day, I can only hope that the dealerships are fighting a losing battle. There’s no question that they are outmoded and unnecessary, especially after Tesla proved that they could sell directly to us without trouble.
Beyond the legal battles, Tesla has quite a lot going for it. To start, the Model S received the highest safety rating of any car ever tested. It earned a five-star safety rating in every subcategory without exception. This is practically unheard of, and frankly, if the car didn’t cost $70,000, I believe it would be almost ubiquitous on the roads.
That’s not to say the sales record has been bad however. In the first quarter of 2013, the Model S outsold similarly priced Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi gasoline powered cars. Sales totaled around 22,450 overall last year, exceeding the goal of 21,500 by almost 1,000.
Early adopters of the car frequently praise it. The most common complaint often stems from its inability to make long trips. The most expensive battery, which has a capacity of 85kWh, is estimated to have a 300-mile range by Tesla. Honestly, out of all the things that could have gone wrong with the car, I feel like this is a fairly innocuous issue.
In fact, I hardly consider it a major problem. How many people really take road trips often enough to have that impact their car-buying decisions? Besides, battery technology is always getting better and the next generation of cars will almost undoubtedly be an improvement.
If Tesla gets around to releasing a cheaper car, I can easily see sales skyrocketing, especially if gas prices continue to rise. As a pragmatist, I only wish I had the money to buy a Model S now. Assuming the company is able to get its legal issues sorted, I believe we’ll be seeing lots more of Tesla in the near future.