At first they ignore you, then they attack you, and then you win. Is this the pattern playing out with a flyer being distributed to Tesla Model S owners in San Francisco alerting them to deep dark secret “facts” about Tesla and the Model S? The flyer, posted today on Twitter, is full of bogosity.
I’m tempted to go line by line and do a debunking, but that’s not what this calls for. Maybe instead, as I suggested above, it’s a sign that Tesla Motors and the whole project of electric car adoption is beginning to work. Maybe this is scaring people that their beloved gasoline car may be about to go the way of horse-drawn buggies?
That is – Even though we can dismiss the Tesla Model S and Model X as cars for the 1%, Tesla Motors has a credible plan in place to begin selling $40,000 cars for the 10%. At a production volume of 200,000+ cars per year, that’ll make the Tesla Model E (or whatever it’s name is) the biggest selling electric vehicle of all time. Uh, that may be one hyperbole step too far, since there are lots of electric golf carts in the world. But the “Model E” will be a harbinger of the shift from gasoline-dominated to electricity-dominated transportation choices.
At the Silicon Valley Charged and Connected conference last week, a Nissan representative dismissed Tesla as a boutique manufacturer of electric cars. At the 200,000+ sales volume he would no longer get away with that characterization.
There are plenty of powerful interests who would feel threatened by the prospect of Tesla Motors position in the marketplace by 2020. Tesla Motors could conceivably be maxing out the 500,000 car/year production capacity of the NUMMI plant building electric cars. And they’ll have their own humongous battery pack factory making batteries not just for Tesla’s own vehicles, but Daimlers, and Solar City grid energy storage systems.
Between Tesla Motors and Solar City, Elon Musk has some big plans in motion that could play a big role in derailing the fossil fuel industry. It’s not just Tesla – there are signs across the board that very interesting announcements are coming within a year or two from major car makers.
Those are some mighty powerful potential enemies. But you’d think those kind of enemies would have better spelling, grammar, punctuation, and fact checking.
By the way:
Yes certain lithium-ion battery types are highly flammable. Tesla has proved the Model S was designed to be extremely safe in fires, and that they’re highly responsive to fixing problems. Tesla repeatedly says the cells used in the Model S are “automotive grade”, and that the 18650 format repeatedly turns out to be the most cost efficient cell format.
Most of the world’s Lithium
comes from Bolivia & Chile. According to Wikipedia there is some lithium deposits in Afghanistan, along with a zillion other useful minerals. It may well be that the Afghanistan War was launched to gain control over those minerals, just as the Iraq war was launched over Oil in Iraq. But that doesn’t mean Tesla is connected to those decisions, or that there’s any real connection between lithium production and the Afghan War.
Multiple deaths of bystanders? Really? Where? Who?
The NUMMI plant was bought from Toyota, after Toyota invested some money in Tesla. The amount Toyota invested more-or-less equaled the amount Tesla paid for the plant and most of the property. I imagine Toyota and Tesla could have worked that deal out themselves without involving a 3rd party like Diane Feinstein’s husband.
Guess I couldn’t resist…
Folks in SF are leaving anonymous flyers on Teslas exposing the “truth” about the company. Mind-blowing. cc @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/5xyJz62Mlu
— Ryan Block (@ryan) April 30, 2014
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