People think 2 companies could challenge Tesla — but neither even has a car

[RV_]

Tesla does no advertising and yet gets a lot of press. And lots of it seems to be off the cuff misinformed drivel at best and outright lies at worst. All of this backlash because they are a success. No matter the commentary or lack of veracity, it remains that there is a large group of folks that would like to see Tesla fail. This despite Musk saying he was not getting competition fast enough to get EVs the place in sales they deserve. And his releasing his patents for the use of any would be competition.

 

The latest are the run of the mill vaporware that everyone expected from Tesla. All bluster and no car.

 

Excerpt:

 

"Over the past few months, there's been a lot of chatter about Tesla facing competition from a cluster of new electric-car companies — including some very serious potential contenders, such as Apple and Google.

The Apple Car, which doesn't exist yet, and the Google Car, which can drive itself but otherwise isn't much of a car, aren't dominating the latest round of speculation, however.

Now we're hearing about Faraday Future and NextEV. With Chinese money behind them and employees hired away from Tesla, these carmakers must be ready to take on Tesla, right?

Of course not. They're nowhere near ready to take on Tesla. And although Tesla would be delighted if a few more startup electric-vehicle makers broke into the business, relieving CEO Elon Musk and Co. of the responsibility of being the only true 100% all-electric carmaker around, the Faradays and NextEVs of the world have miles to go before they're going to be even so much as competing with Tesla, much less challenging it.

For starters, neither has a car yet. Tesla has two — the Model S sedan and the Model X SUV — and a forthcoming mass-market vehicle, the Model 3, expected in 2017. If you consider the original Tesla, the Roadster, then the company has three cars. Tesla is also able to build about 50,000 cars per year, with an expectation that it will build 10 times that by 2020.

Faraday Future is reportedly going to show the world a prototype of its vehicle at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early next year.

NextEV recently announced that it had hired a former Cisco executive, Padmasree Warrior, to be its CEO. But NextEV's website looks more like a recruiting effort now than a mobility showcase. NextEV is practicing the vague art of surfing various futuristic transportation trends, mainly car sharing and "de-ownership" of a personal vehicle, rather than showcasing anything so mundane as a metal rectangle with four wheels and seats.

But neither company is currently building a production car. And until they do, the challenge to Tesla doesn't exist.

 

Tesla actually builds cars."

 

The whole article with much more on the attempts to challenge Tesla's absolute dominance of the EV category is here: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/those-electric-car-companies-keep-213437354.html

 

We all wish them luck and can't wait until they have actual cars in actual production and actually buyable. For the folks that keep saying that solar and EVs and wind power are all not feasible, because their scientific education and training are limited, need only look at the lowly solar charging night discharging solar walkway and floodlights. I have my whole house equipped with LED bulbs in standard 65watt floodlight shapes that use only 10 watts each, and 40 watt bulbs in the bathroom vanities that use an actual 5 watts. In our new kitchen there are 8 ceiling cans for lights that had 65 watt incandescent floodlights that actually use 65 watts of energy and generate loads of heat. I replaced them all with LED floodlights that provided more lumens of light using only 8.5 watts of energy each. All eight LED bulbs when turned on use only 3 watts more than one 65 watt incandescent. Our bathrooms have six light fixtures that each had 40 watt 370 lumens incandescent bulbs in them. We replaced them with 40 watt equivalent that use only 5 watts each, but put out 450 lumens. Back in the day the equivalent LED bulbs cost triple what they cost now and put out less lumens. Now they are quite affordable for the 23 year expected life of the bulbs. We are considering replacing the bulbs in the bathroom because they are actually too bright compared to the 40 watt bulbs they replaced. Buying non dimmable on Amazon in six packs, and TCL, a good brand, cost under $200.00 for the whole house including 60 watt equivalent normal bulbs for the overhead lights and entryway lights. Now it is not about expense. It is about lifestyle and convenience. No more buying bulbs in my lifetime. ( I bought 10% spares to account for manufacturing defects and unforeseen failures) In fact I am thinking about changing to a bit more daylight instead of the soft bulbs in one set, and getting a bit softer in the now bright sunshine over lit bathrooms. So now our spring cleaning yard sale will include a big box of fluorescent and incandescent bulbs. the incandescent are from the new house, the many fluorescents are from our old house. The LED lights are just barely warm to the touch , not even as hot as the fluorescents which are cooler than incandescent, but can still burn you.

 

All we need is for the lagging research to lick magnetic refrigeration, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwZpaIawB6Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGtWKouzF2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVhAvp17xJ8 ) which would only use the power a room fan uses with no compressor. Just think of the savings in large buildings and small RVs. Once we quit transforming so much of our energy into waste heat, and disrupt a few more industries, it will be eminently possible to run a house on solar alone. That dream is possible now, I'm talking affordable, cheap, renewable energy.

 

This unfunds the middle eastern terrorists, as the oil will stay in the ground under desert sands and not have a market. We can produce what little we need for lubrication without imports or much of an industry to harvest oil. No downside except the folks that don't distinguish between being right, and doing right, will have to watch more success. It is happening. when the foot draggers lose they will hate the successors. In Germany the energy companies that went down fighting indeed are gone, or going down for the third time. The energy companies that supported solar and adapted it to their businesses are thriving and sharing what they learned.