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65 points doener | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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rmu09 ◴[] No.45345721[source]
US made cars had the reputation of being low quality, too big, too heavy and too inefficient for european cities.

Tesla was somewhat different. People bought Teslas not for their promised "self driving" capabilities (I know no Tesla driver that took those promises at face value or got the FSD option FWIW), but one motivation was to "stick it" to snobbish arrogant european manufacturers wanting to develop "clean" ICEs with "green fuels" or other non-sensical crimes against thermodynamics like H2-cars.

Now, Tesla (and the US in general) has a brand toxicity problem, and it is worsening. People I know that would consider a Tesla some years ago now drive electric VWs or BWMs or KIAs, often times much more expensive cars than the comparable Tesla 3 / Y model.

This trend will probably continue the next years, and I don't see a way for Tesla to repair the brand image.

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1. zx10rse ◴[] No.45346875[source]
Modern ICEVs are super clean [1]. Teslas were bought because of their software advantage and I don't mean "self driving" I argue that Tesla in its core is a software company, the old brands quickly caught up on the software part, that is why you are going to see a shift from the Tesla market. Yes sure there is going to be some political factor but I don't think the % is that high, compared to better/improved software more slick UI and overall better build quality.

I see quite the opposite trend tho.

Hybrids are great this is where the push should have been. Dacia is doing really great in Europe. The old manufactures are again not in the loop. Dacia rebranding is quite something[2] their new Duster/Bigster line looks super cool and modern. The market is already starting to slowly shift less digital more analogue[3]. The whole TV screen cockpit, piano black plastic, AI everywhere is monstrosity its atrocious this is not luxury its grotesque.

[1] - A negative emission internal combustion engine vehicle? - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S135223102... [2] - 2024 All-New Dacia Duster: Reveal Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QtOa7cP6MQ [3] - Hypercar Boss Chat! Fixing Jaguar, Horsepower Wars & More… | 4K - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6lAhRqHmuw&t=329s