The BIG problem with Tesla

(It's not that bloke)

I have had the enormous privilege of being handed the keys to a very wide range of electric cars over the last many years, and without question, the general quality of electric vehicles, the software that controls them, the batteries that power them, the motors that drive them have all seen incredible developments and improvements.

I hate these generic images used in corporate PR gubbins, that’s why I just had to use one.

While this is very much a good thing, the differences between brands and models is getting more and more subtle and therefore harder to highlight in a review.

I’m not talking about the shape of the body, the aerodynamics or the subtle developments of LED light designs. Those differences are very much about individual taste.

But the engineering that underlies the outward appearance, the steering and suspension, the chassis, the battery pack, the motor and drivetrain, the software are, it seems to me at least, slowly coalescing into a relatively similar experience for both driver and passengers.

Again, I say this is no bad thing for us, as end users. How it might affect the car industry as a whole in another matter. That might be above my paygrade but saying that, I have opinions.

From my personal experience, there has been one constant in this hurly-burly of new car launches, my Tesla Model 3.

Can we please put aside any opinions, anger, bafflement about that bloke for the next few minutes. I’m talking about the car, the company, the close to 100 thousand people who work there, making a genuinely game changing product.

Can we also, just for the sake of this argument, put aside the very depressing fact that Tesla have not launched a decent new product in five years. The blindingly obvious need for a smaller, cheaper, lighter car with the same underlying technological advantages their larger models have has left a hole in the market that has now been more than adequately filled by dozens of other brands.

That is a tragedy for Tesla.

But, if I have been driving a new electric car from any car maker you’ve ever heard of, or in the case of Chinese cars, possibly a car you’ve never heard of, and I get back into the Model 3 to drive home, there is a moment, just briefly, where my face creases a little and against everything I feel, believe or once hoped for, I have to acknowledge there are aspects to Tesla’s technology that are still just ahead of the pack.

Basically, the BIG problem with Tesla, for me as someone who does not admire Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, is the cars are really good.

I’m not talking about the design, I’m not talking about the quality of the interior or even the layout of the screen, I’m not talking about the road holding, the handling, although those are very good.

It’s the buried, underlying competence of the software and hardware. The battery pack itself, still exemplary, the incredible energy economy which yes, is partly to do with aerodynamics but mainly the BMS, the battery management software. It’s how that software ties into the real world, and of course the incredible, unfaltering, often cheaper Supercharger network.

That is still utterly exemplary, nothing outside China is close to this incredible network of incredibly reliable, easy to use fast and ultra fast chargers.

It’s important to remind ourselves of the fact that Tesla grew out of a combination of software engineers as much as car designers and automotive engineers. We need to remember that until the emergence of the faster moving, larger and increasingly successful Chinese brands, Tesla was the only large scale car maker with no combustion legacy.

They didn’t need to painfully and slowly transition away from making millions of dirty old combustion engines to restructuring themselves and eventually producing competent and viable electric vehicles.

They started out with a clean sheet, and due to the calibre and skill of the engineers who worked for the company in its early years, they produced vehicles that represent an incredible leap in technology.

Me in 2019 giving my 2015 Tesla Model S a final wash before returning it to the leasing company. 4 years, 72,000 miles, utterly faultless.

No matter what happens to Tesla from now on, that status remains. From June 2012 when the Tesla Model S was launched, the days of combustion engines were numbered.

So I am still driving our Tesla Model 3 in 2025, I have a really complicated and often painful relationship with this car.

Nothing to do with the technology, the design, the people who build it, the value of the company (I don’t own shares) but very specifically he who shall not be named.

But, and this is critically important for Tesla, literally in the last 18 months I am experiencing other brands with underlying technology that is now either neck and neck, or in specific cases more advanced than Tesla. I immediately want to point out that no one else outside China has anything resembling the charging network Tesla has installed, but the cars?

Hmm. Their huge technological lead from 5 years ago is literally withering before our eyes. Plus all over Europe and increasingly around the world, the Supercharger network is open to all brands, so even that monumental early advantage is reducing.

Much as I am uncomfortable with the man, I desperately want to the company to survive and prosper, I don’t know what they have in store. Personally I could not be less interested in the handful of new products they have launched since the Model Y. The vile techbro fantasy truck, come on, it’s been a huge, embarrassing flop from the moment it was revealed.

The utter techbro insanity of bipedal robots, the heartbreaking error of the 2 seater taxi thing. I’ve seen it, it’s already not really working and that small car could have been something useful. A car.

So my optimism about this company is at a very low ebb, but what the company has done is open a huge door that cannot now be closed. They proved beyond doubt that it is possible to ditch burning liquid fuel to power a machine. They proved beyond doubt that a lot of people are happy to switch over.

I am absolutely aware that they have survived the recent rejection and hostility of many of their early supporters and fans, they have sold over 200,000 cars in the UK alone, and it shows on the road. You no longer stand out if you drive a Tesla, but what I am seeing is a massive increase in the number of other brands on the road.

Tesla are just a company, they are not guaranteed to survive, but I really hope they do.

I’m also absolutely aware that some of the things I’ve said in this update will annoy some people, most likely on both sides of the massive chasm that was opened up by the interventions of the man who I will not name.

I stand by my argument that the cars are an amazing achievement of over 100,000 people who work at Tesla Motors. I also have fleetingly met one of the top executives of the Chinese car making giant, BYD, Stella Li.

BYD’s R&D centre in China

I have no idea what her political views are, I’m not interested and she doesn’t share them. BYD also employ over 100,000 people . . . . . in their R&D department. They are developing a massive variety of new vehicles, new technology, new battery designs. They actually employ over 1 million people worldwide.

Just saying.