Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.
I have taken a break from the Conti for a few months, but now it’s back, typed aboard a United 777 en route to the Shanghai auto show, which is becoming an ever-more-important fixture in the automotive year. I’ll talk about the buzz of that show soon.
A Brief Glance at Tesla
What’s up with Tesla? Apart from breathlessly monitoring the twitter feed of St. Elon (credit to Peter DeLorenzo for the phrase), I speak with suppliers that deal with Tesla on a regular basis. Their perspective is interesting. “Tesla has set off a wave that will eventually crush them,” one of them tells me.
Why? Because the Model S, that energy-sucking behemoth of a luxury sedan with up to 691 horsepower, has sold so well that the segment is impossible to ignore. Whether or not they help the environment, electrics are here to stay. That’s whyGerman carmakers are gearing up to attack Tesla at its own game. Porsche will launch a fully electric version of the next-generation Panamera, Audi is working on a fully electric crossover SUV, and BMW is targeting the upper segments with another i model.
I predict that these cars will be vastly superior to Tesla’s models in terms of performance, refinement, and impact on the environment, not to mention their autonomous driving functions. Oh, and Cadillac will have plug-in hybrids, too. Electrification will cease to be a differentiator, leaving cars to fight for their merit on substance alone.
I tested a single-motor P85S in Germany last summer, and I found that its performance is fine on highways, but it drops off sharply on the autobahn. High-velocity driving or repeated acceleration runs lead to a sharp drop in available power, so much so that it was hard to keep the Tesla above 110 mph on slight grades. At that point, 90-horsepower diesels start flashing their lights at you if you don’t move out of the passing lane. Moreover, I was not impressed by the graceless interior design and the showy but flawed user interface, not to mention several technical glitches.
For a few hours—more recently—I drove an all-wheel-drive, 691-hp P85D. Fun and fast? Yes. Insane? Please.
Would a European carmaker have gotten away with a car like the Model S? “Of course not,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche told me, adding generously: “But that’s not a criticism because the people that bought this car are happy with it.”
While the Model 3 seems to be mostly vaporware at this point, the Model X is at least gradually inching towards its market launch. But it has suffered massive delays, providing the competition with generous time to precision-tune their competing models. Granted, those competitors will lack “falcon doors,” but even so.
Tesla says that the Model 3, to meet its price targets, needs the success of the modestly named “Gigafactory,” the battery site in Nevada which is supposed to lower battery costs by at least 30 percent. The mammoth “Gigafactory” project, built in conjunction with Japanese electronics company Panasonic, will eat up an estimated $5 billion. Recently, rumors about delays at the factory have surfaced, and it’s putting off potential partners. The board member of a European carmaker tells me: “We won’t join, precisely because we believe there will be advances in battery technology. We don’t want to be locked in with Tesla and their technology.”
Furthermore, suppliers tell me that Tesla is mainly looking for off-the-shelf parts for the Model 3. But despite this decidedly pragmatic approach, Tesla is far from developing a car within a year, something it flippantly told the industry it could pull off. “They don’t even know what they don’t know,” an executive jokes.
As BMW has brusquely fended off Tesla’s advances, both Toyota and Daimler have sold their shares in Tesla, opting to treat the company like a competitor instead of a cooperation partner. Is proximity toxic? A supplier executive tells me: “If a carmaker remains close to Tesla, the ‘stupid press’ will write that they figured out from them how to build an electric. And that’s the last they want to be accused of.”
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