this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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208
How Tesla blew its lead. (restofworld.org)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
62 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

BYD took the global EV crown. Now Chinese rivals and local startups are taking over emerging markets.

  • Tesla’s sales are dropping globally, with political headwinds and fierce EV rivals throwing up challenges.
  • New frontiers beckon, but Tesla faces a showdown with savvy local and Chinese competitors vying for dominance.
  • Pricing battles and rapid innovation are putting Tesla to the test, demanding a strategic jolt to regain its edge.
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[–] tankplanker@lemmy.world 28 points 5 days ago (7 children)

BYD is eating everyone's lunch at the bottom not just Tesla.

Tesla could have prospered by sticking to the mid range but their build quality is appalling even for a lower mid car.

Couple that with some truly dumb design ideas from Elon (no lidar, no physical buttons, indicators as buttons, stupidly high repair bills due to design choices) and some even more stupid personal behaviors from him and he has just cut the legs out of his market.

EV buyers who are spending more money care about this kind of thing, budget buyers it is mostly about price.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 days ago

Exactly. I'm a budget buyer and Tesla doesn't make sense. My parents are luxury buyers and Tesla doesn't make sense. My coworkers buy Tesla, so I guess there's a market, but the reason they bought doesn't hold up as well today.

We'll see what Tesla does, but I think they need to kick out Musk to get there.

[–] Patch@feddit.uk 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

BYD is eating everyone's lunch at the bottom not just Tesla.

It's not just BYD. SAIC (whose main international brand is MG) isn't far behind, Chery (whose main brands are Omoda and Jaecoo) are starting to get about too, and there are myriad smaller Chinese marques.

Chinese cars in general are really hitting the market hard.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What I've been seeing around here (England) is a major proliferation of Kias and Hyundais. Occasionally I'll see an electric Mustang or Jaguar.

[–] Patch@feddit.uk 1 points 4 days ago

Yep. Feel like I see more Ioniqs than anything else, although things are gradually diversifying.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 17 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Because the CEO “sent his heart out to the world”. Ain’t no coming back from that public perception, tbh.

[–] bob_lemon@feddit.org 6 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Tbh, that would have been extremely simple to come back from: Fire his ass. The issue is that they didn't.

(Inb4 someone says they cannot fire him for some legal or contract reason: That is a major red flag in and of itself)

[–] sirboozebum@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I heard the next model, the Tesla SS, with innovative features like doing Nazi salutes out the windows to indicate is going to be a huge hit.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 4 points 4 days ago

Simulated fart sounds replaced with Sieg Heils.

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 4 points 4 days ago

"Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Some asshole bought the company when it had innovative tech and good quality, and hasn't had the focus to address the inevitable quality issues that come with scaling up production.

[–] TheFriar@lemm.ee 1 points 3 days ago

Maybe more ketamine will help

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 56 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"Political headwinds" is putting it mildly.

[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 48 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Poor Elon simply gave his heart and love to the world by raising his right arm at a 45° angle after tapping his left boob. He did nazi anything wrong with that.

[–] Xanthobilly@lemmy.world 24 points 6 days ago (2 children)

The excuse his enablers give is absurd. Ask yourself what’s worse: give a Nazi salute on TV or doing a gesture the entire world knows as a Nazi salute on TV and not realizing it? They’re both bad enough that he shouldn’t be in charge of a lemonade stand.

[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

Anyone arguing that Musk didn't know exactly what he was doing is just another Nazi pissing in the wind and they all deserve every bit of blow back they get, pun intended.

The only thing Musk didn't understand is that he was branding himself and everything he touches as nothing more than Nazi scum for the rest of his miserable life.

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[–] patatahooligan@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

The problem with any excuse you make for Elon is that Elon is too stupid to keep his mouth shut and give the excuse any plausibility. After the nazi salute he went on Twitter to make nazi puns about it. It is certain beyond reasonable doubt that he knows exactly what the salute was. Even if you give him the insane benefit of the doubt that it was really "his heart going out" and accidentally looked like the salute, his having shown he knows what it looks like but never stating he does not actually believe in the ideology or want present himself as an ally to nazis is just as damning.

[–] NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world 43 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Tesla hasn't lost it in 2025, but much earlier.

For example, when they stopped maintaining and improving their successful Model 3 and Model Y, because the ugly tinbox "needed" all research and development resources.

[–] CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This is exactly it. Instead of focusing on refining and renewing their products, Tesla burned billions on self-driving, while simultaneously hamstringing themselves by removing radar and lidar. That’s before the cybertruck and roadster 2 interfered.

Lucid, from what I can tell, has done this work. Their new motors are the size of a carryon. The interior volume is enormous. That’s what the flagships should be like at Tesla, but they screwed up.

[–] caffinatedone@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

That’s because Tesla’s stock valuation was always based on “revolutionary new shiny thing!” rather than “making and selling cars”.

musk has to constantly come out with a new reason why the stock justifies a valuation so insanely high (was worth more than all other car companies combined). “Full self driving!” “Robotaxies!” “Fully automated manufacturing!”, etc….

That’s also why musk can extort $50B payoffs from Tesla. So much of their value is based on his BS powered reality distortion field that they’re terrified of what might happen if he leaves.

Now, there’s huge risk inherent in banking everything on the very stable genius musk as they’re learning.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago

Unwanted features taking priority over quality improvements is a textbook enshittication move.

[–] Terevos@lemm.ee 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Excuse me. It's the best looking dumpster on the road.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 9 points 6 days ago

Recommended by 9 out of 10 raccoons.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'll say it happen when Musk got involved with production as he thought he will disrupt manufacturing by heavily relying in automation, disregarding what every manufacturing expert had told him that it ain't that easy.

He fumbled the ball hard and IMO that was the beginning of the end of Tesla's hegemony, where they started making serious quality mistakes and dropped finishing quality as well.

That said, I'm not sure if they ever had any to begin with, but for a while customers valued that brand very highly, even being on waiting lists for months.

To me, this was the Jets' Butt Fumble of car manufacturing.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago

Even before Musk got involved, the "disrupting car manufacturing" idea was there, and Tesla had already reversed course and was recruiting experienced auto-industry production engineers. Turns out all those "why don't we just?" questions from the tech bros had already been tried in the car industry 40 years ago, and had almost all failed.

Cars are complex gadgets with nasty supply-chain issues, and design for manufacturability and maintainability aren't the first things someone thinks of when trying to roll out a long list of new features.

[–] shaggyb@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

For sure.

A Model 3 from early 2024 really feels 5-10 years behind a 2026 Kia or Hyundai at this point.

They lost the plot big time somewhere around mid-2022 I think. Would be interesting to learn if Elon started some new designer drug or something around then.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

Even the very conservatively designed Polestar at least has good build quality.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Back in the day, Tesla was releasing some of its tech without patent licenses to help other EV makers catch up, to help the environment. Or at least that's what I remember from the PR.

Back then they wanted to blow their lead so electric cars would do better in general.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 4 days ago

.Back then they wanted to blow their lead so electric cars would do better in general.

First-mover advantage wasn't going to be lost in the near-term due to patent-sharing.

[–] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 6 days ago (1 children)

BYD was always going to pass Tesla, Elon's actions just accelerated the timeline

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 14 points 6 days ago

The most financially destructive edgelord Zieg Heil in history.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 26 points 6 days ago

Turns out people want cars they can afford. Crazy stuff

[–] troed@fedia.io 18 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Yeah no I'm not switching out reliance on US cloud services with ... Chinese.

Replaced my Tesla with a Volkswagen ID.7. Recommended.

[–] Squizzy@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Tourer?

Vws are overpriced and a bit lackluster these days, I got a KIA.

Does your car have an annoying warning about the rules of the road when you start it, that requires a button press to confirm?

[–] troed@fedia.io 5 points 6 days ago (6 children)

The VW ID.7 is about the same cost as a Tesla Model 3 and its size and features are more like the Model S. I was early so I have the sedan, a friend has the tourer though and loves it.

No such warning, at least not here in Sweden/Europe.

I looked at the Kia EV9 but it was a lot more expensive, also, we didn't get the swivel seats here. They had to be bolted stuck in forward position :(

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[–] OCATMBBL@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

If the owner of the company wasn't trying to heil a cab on the national stage, people wouldn't be doubting these EVs nearly as much.

Not that they're particularly high quality anyway.

[–] Viri4thus@feddit.org 8 points 6 days ago

What lead? It's not a race if nobody else is participating.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 5 points 6 days ago

The article should just be “This Guy” followed by photos of Elon doing his thing for the last year or so.

[–] nectar45@lemmy.zip 6 points 6 days ago

"How Tesla blew its load"

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Even if it weren't for all the political stuff Tesla's are just not very good cars, combined with a truly awful customer service experience.

I have no idea what BYD's customer service experiences like but the fact that the cars seem to have actually gone through some kind of QA means that they can only be an improvement

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[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Oh & OpenPilot/Comma-AI is an alternative to Tesla's "auto-pilot"

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