The Tesla Effect!

WOW, what a few eventful months it has been!

Even though I have known about Tesla for quite some time, it’s just been since late last year when the Model 3 was released that more and more people have become aware of The Tesla Effect.

What is The Tesla Effect?

To explain this, you have to first think about what it takes to operate a conventional Diesel or Gasoline car:

• First we have to build the car (about 10,000 to 20,000 moving parts
• Then we have to transport these cars via trucks to dealerships
• Then the salesperson has to make the deal with you
• Then when the tank is empty we have to fill the tank
• To get the gasoline we need the following:
  • Expensive oil drilling equipment has to extract the oil (pollution from oil contaminated drilling mud, water, oilwell & tanker spills, etc.
  • The oil needs to be pipelined or shipped to refineries (pollution from spills and seeps, dirty bunker oil burning tankers)
  • The oil needs to be refined in old, expensive, polluting oil refineries
  • The refined gasoline needs to be pipelined or trucked to gasoline stations
  • People have to fuel their cars (pollution from spilled fuel)
• People drive their cars (pollution from tail pipe and leaking engines)
• We have to maintain the cars (lot’s of failures with 20000 moving parts!!!)

Now let’s look at the Tesla cars (but this holds true for many EVs):

• We have to build the EV (less than 500 moving parts, mostly electric or servo motors, bearings, etc.)
• Tesla sells the cars directly to customers and trucks the cars directly to them
• People plug in the cars at home (50-75%) or plug into public recharge stations (only pollutions is from fossil fuel derived electricity, only additional electrical infrastructure required is a high Amperage electrical outlet in your garage or on the side of the house)
• Maintenance is nominal with so few moving parts (most pollution is from making the tires, and the tire wear rubber dust)

Now, the above it very simplified, but you get the idea!

But why would we call it The Tesla Effect?

Because even though GM has been building EVs for some time, they were trying to maintain their industry dominance and built the cars inefficient to gasoline or diesel standards.

Tesla on the other hand started from scratch, never having built cars… they designed their production models from scratch to be an EV, and have been innovating the battery, motor, efficiency, and safety standards to a level that the conventional car manufacturers cannot compete.

Tesla just about obliterated sedan sales in 2018 and 2019, and I believe the other manufacturers will be shuttering all but the most budget sedan models for 2020… used sedans have dropped in value by up to 75% in some cases… you can pick up a luxury compact sedan like a BMW or Mercedes Benz for the same price as a mid range new sedan… many people not willing to pay for a Tesla will buy a used luxury car or the same priced brand new conventional car… but even this will change in 2020 – but that is just my humble opinion!