1/ A short thread about @Danneilwsj1, who writes the Rumble Seat column for @WSJ. Neil just published a piece called "Why 2020 Is the Turning Point for Electric Cars." Link at the end of this thread.
2/ While Neil is a brilliant writer, he is a shameless shill for Elon Musk and $TSLA. In this latest piece, for example, he quotes the price of the LR Model Y (which doesn't exist yet) at $43,700.
3/ The actual price, on $tsla's web site, is $48,000. Neil includes - without noting he is doing so - Tesla's claimed savings in fuel costs. Did Neil add back the extra insurance premiums Tesla owners are paying because the cars are expensive to repair & easy to total? Nope.
4/ What makes Neil's deception even more egregious is that the article lists 10 or so other existing or soon-to-arrive EV offerings. No fuel savings included with their pricing. Neil's misleading quotation of the Y's pricing makes it appear more attractive relative to the others.
5/ Where Neil is really off base, though, is in the larger picture. He writes that the auto industry "has been caught flat-footed by the rise of Tesla and China’s skyrocketing vehicle-emissions mandates..."
6/ No, Dan. The rest of the OEMs decided to wait it out as long as they could. $TSLA has lost money in all 10 years of its existence as a public company (and each year before that while private).
7/ Not a word in Neil's article (this, or any other piece he's written) about how EU emissions standards are forcing OEMs to make cars people don't want, and sell them below cost. Not a word about how batteries are still quite expensive & range limited relative to ICE.
8/ There's a revolution happening in auto manufacturing, all right. But it's not because EVs make economic sense, or because the grid is suddenly clean. It's because of government mandates & subsidies.
9/ Perhaps the govts have the right approach. Or perhaps it's a huge misallocation of capital that will accomplish next to nothing in reducing global CO2 emissions. Regardless, there's an important debate to be had. Neil, as always, simply assumes the purity & superiority of EVs.
10/ Here's a link to the story by one of the best writers (and, said to say, when it comes to $tsla & Musk, dishonest shills) in the auto press: wsj.com/articles/power…
11/ Final note: last time I engaged Neil on twitter, quite politely, he left Twitter. A few days later, Elon Musk called my boss. Hmmmm.
Listen, Dan. We can have a discussion here. How about you start by explaining why you priced the Model Y in the manner I detailed?
Listen, Dan. We can have a discussion here. How about you start by explaining why you priced the Model Y in the manner I detailed?
12/ OK, final final note. As some here observed, Neil made an even greater howler near the end of the article:
"The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (250 miles) starts at $33,815. "
To me, that raises the likelihood this is all calculated dishonesty, & not some honest error.
"The Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (250 miles) starts at $33,815. "
To me, that raises the likelihood this is all calculated dishonesty, & not some honest error.
