Quote:
Originally Posted by robg
Hopefully musk will be just as motivated to achieve Porsche level build quality in the redesigned model s (whenever it comes out)
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Uh, let me not hold my breath for that. He is not going to beat Porsche (or even German manufacturers in general) by having higher build quality or more redundancy built in or repeated racetrack use. That's their game not Elon's.
He is beating them with a head start (battery tech & drive units), charging network, stock pricing and software/UI (a traditional American forte) with a good amount of razzle dazzle thrown in. Not that any manufacturer is above razzle dazzle.
The stock price advantage is considerable. As long as you have billions of valuation that is not tightly tied to your operating margin, you can afford to invest in R&D, sell at a loss and make all sorts of bets. Of course, there is strong engineering underneath, but start-ups are partially self-fulfilling.