this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
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Leopards Ate My Face
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The guys that founded Tesla (not Elon) actually did a great market analysis. They said EVs are expensive, so you don't start at the budget end. You actually start at the expensive luxury end. With trucks though it's hard because the buyers think they need a towing truck and the aerodynamics and thus range are awful.
The problem is everyone else followed that.
That strategy worked great for Tesla. It’s seems valid for lucid, although too early to tell. It seems to be working for Rivian but 2026 is what will determine that. These are all early adopters who were able to make a compelling high end vehicle.
But it hasn’t been an effective strategy for legacy manufacturers, those who are late to the party, who are producing same old vehicles with different power train. They don’t seem to notice that too many of their attempts just aren’t compelling
But more importantly the market conditions have changed. There already are compelling high end EVs. They’re not going into an empty market, they are late. EVs have found a niche and companies are supplying it. But what hasn’t happened (at least in the us) is that breakout to mass acceptance. What about the rest of us?
If I want a $100k EV, I have choices so why would I buy some legacy manufacturers half asses first attempt?. If I want a $50k EV I have choices, including those which have already been refined through a couple generations. Cars are slowly working their way into the general market. But if I can only afford a $30k car, where are my choices? Why isn’t ford looking at that market? The market has changed: they need to do their own research and should have gone where the opportunity is rather than copy those before
While I guess I have to applaud the Lightning as an attempt to break open a new market segment, they should have known going in that these are your most conservative customers. They want what they got last time, they’re not trying anything new, and they’re not compromising even in features they never use. It was always going to be tough
You have this all mixed up. New features are always expensive. So new feautes always start at the top end and work their way down. Then as you get the design nailed down, the supply chain flowing, and economies of scale working the price comes down. Manufacturers don't get to say "I want it cheap" and poof it's cheap.
Sure but you can’t follow someone else’s strategy when you’re not them and the market has changed.
Look at Slate as a possible alternative. Instead of blindly following teslas strategy starting withbhigh end vehicles and working your way down, they did their own market research. They identified an unserved market segment and designed a compelling product to serve it. We’ll see in a couple years whether it pans out for them
Or look at the plethora of Chinese manufacturers. They’re competing on both price and features. They went all in and went from starting later than legacy us manufacturers should have and quickly zoomed ahead.