It's also true that car sales are slowing across the board. Inflation, economic uncertainty and interest rates all contribute.
Top electric vehicle registrations in Europe by company, April 2025
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Very much so. It seems Tesla has taken the biggest hit so far.
So because raw cow hide is a "renewable resource" you assume all the processing to make this resource into a car seat is also a blessed "renewable resource"?
Raw cow hide is virtually free as a byproduct of steak. Oversupply.
Recently, sure. But VW, Nissan and others have had problems for awhile. Even the mighty Porsche... Tesla's wounds are self inflicted.
With the new 3 and Y, and the new cars on the horizon, Tesla should be on top of the world. And they know it.
Yet it's coated in rubberized paint and then sealed and "renewable".
It's almost as processed as "vegan" leather these days. I love leather products, but cars in my price range have highly processed leather now. The best I can do for good leather products are wallets and belts.
Maybe, I'm thinking it's the competition as being the biggest part.
I don't see it. I've seen what the competition's prices are. They are roughly 20% more.
Allow BYD in at the same tariff as Japanese and Euro cars and watch what happens.
Maybe it'll do fine. i don't want a Chinese made car though. I would think people would care about supporting US manufacturing, but maybe people don't care anymore.
BYD is a formidable competitor. And not just for the EV space; all car companies. They have focused on manufacturing engineering to develop lower cost to manufacture, higher output and higher quality.
The only car company with enough agility to compete with them is Tesla and they just shot themselves in the foot. Everyone else is far too slow and do not sufficiently value engineering. How many companies produce a pure play EV? Bean counters will not pay for ingenuity and R&D. And that's what it takes to compete.
And how many countries graduate as many engineers as China? We need to value education. Or hand it all over to China.
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Neither do I. We may not have a choice.
Baseball gloves and saddles. Sometimes shoes.Yet it's coated in rubberized paint and then sealed and "renewable".
Car leather too closely resembles vinyl. I much prefer the fake "vegan" leather Tesla uses. I don't care if it is "environmental" or "renewable" or etc.
I see the numbers down double digits as per the report, so once again we might have to agree to disagree.
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So because the wind blows or the sun shines, you assume all the processing to make these resources into electricity is also a blessed "renewable resource"?
Perhaps not the "gotcha" you were aiming for there eh?
The feed stock for leather (cows) is "renewable", what is done to it to turn it into a seating surface may involve processes and chemicals that aren't, but I assume could be, if it was needed.
The feed stock for vinyl is petroleum, which is not renewable. However, it's quite possible to use synthetic petroleum or petroleum alternatives for this process if the economics were favorable, or there was sufficient pressure from consumers.
Which means we should be endeavoring to use this material, rather than it ending up in landfills as waste.
You don't see them because they are of no use. Totally inappropriate.
OVERKILL
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As I said earlier, to each their own on preference, I've owned some very high quality leathers and, personally, prefer them over the material Tesla uses, having experienced both.
That said, I agree with both you and @Torrid that the lower grades of "leather" used in vehicles that aren't part of expensive options packages are essentially indistinguishable from vinyl, they are so thin and so heavily processed and coated, but that's why I specifically mentioned high grades of leather in my first reply. My Audi e-tron had "leather" and it might as well have been MB-Tex, it was so far from what was in my Jeep or M5.
If you don't care if it's "environmental" or "renewable", why argue with me over that aspect? Seems wholly unnecessary.
In the interest of accuracy I just looked up one company, 1st quarter 2025 sales are up a whopping 17% and that is GM
My son gets his BMW i4M50 next week. Our first EV in the family. Though he typically keeps his cars for about 6 months maybe a bit more before turning it in. He works for BMW.
100% agree. IMO, Tesla is somewhere around 135,000 employees world wide.
Musk damaged the brand, which is a huge no-no and is a violation of his fiduciary duty as CEO. Add to that, the terms, "Tesla", "Musk", etc, grab headlines.
My guess is, people will forget. Time will tell. But there is no denying as a company, Tesla has made mistakes. Is the Cybertruck anything more than a "look at me" vehicle? Contrast that to the 3 and Y, which are as good as it gets in their market segment.
Then add BYD into the mix. Wake up Tesla, and everybody else for that matter.
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