ItsNotAboutTheMoney
Well-Known Member
Coming from a country without "Big Oil", I only know our Auto companies. And when I read Julian's analysis or the discussion in this thread in general, there are some points I just have to disagree with - or at least points that I just don't get.
First, this so-called "cannibalization". What's that supposed to be all about?
Imagine the following future scenario: BMW offers a great 3-series EV, they also offer standard 3-series gas and diesel engines at the same time. I would image that pricing would be such that BMW doesn't lose money on any of those offerings.
Why on Earth then would BMW care whether a customer bought an EV 3-series vs. a gas or diesel 3-series? As long as the customer is buying a BMW, and not a C-class, A4 or whatever the competition offers, I am certain BMW would be happy.
Margin. Companies have the best margin in their greatest areas of strength, with existing product lines. When a company is forced to compete either by shifting emphasis or with new technology, sales move from a high margin area to a low margin area. Cannibalization happens where customers migrate from high to low margin products.
Tesla is currently operating at 0 profit margin. Any company that has to adjust prices to compete with Tesla will hurt their profits. Amazon has used this to crush opposition.
Then there is the whole "threat" idea I just don't understand.
Think for a minute. Tesla is selling what, say 50K vehicles a year (at the very best) at the moment, realistically far less?
VW, BMW, Audi, Merc, Toyota etc. are selling hundreds of thousands, no millions of cars a year. So - at least at the moment - Tesla is no "threat" to them in any way - nor will it be even if Gen III sells 200K vehicles a year.
It's the same situation the other way round. Even if VW succeeds in selling 100K e-Golf and e-up! vehicles, that wouldn't be a "threat" to Tesla, as those cars are no competition for Tesla. No one can tell me that someone in the BEV market is deciding between a 100K Euro Model S and a 40K Euro e-Golf for example.
The key potential threat from Tesla is margin.
If Tesla's plan succeeds, by 2019 or 2020 they'll be selling 500k Gen 3s per year. Please also remember that Tesla would also have the Model X, which will introduce 4WD and broaden their market base. Tesla Gen 3 sales will come from the luxury segment but also from "premium mainstream" buyers. Those 500k Tesla sales wouldn't just represent lost sales to other manufacturers, they'd be losses of high margin sales.
Also, success for Tesla would mean that even if they were initially production constrained, consumer interest could shift away from the internal combustion engine. Since manufacturers have a lot of existing IP (and thus profit margin) in engine technology, and outsource most everything else, a shift in consumer interest would represent a huge loss of value. Not to mention that a pure electric drivetrain should increase reliability and has the potential further to extend ownership cycles.
Finally, the nature of BEVs means that in future if there's a leap in battery technology, a manufacturer that doesn't have access to that technology could die very, very quickly.