What The German Luxury Brands Can Learn From Tesla

The news that Mercedes sold a couple of thousand more cars than Audi in September wasn't particularly noteworthy in itself. It was however a great reminder at the total volume that the leading German luxury brands including BMW are doing worldwide putting them ahead of many mainstream brands. The brands all claim that sales aren't what they are chasing but sales are linked to profits and combined the two powers certainly impact the cars the brands produce. The other piece of news from last week, the Tesla D intro, actually serves as quite the foil for the Big 3 German luxury brands. Tesla's worldwide sales for all of 2014 will be about what Mercedes and BMW do in one month in the US alone, but it's the progression of improvement over at Tesla that makes it noteworthy. The D is set to match if not even surpass comparable AMG, M and RS models acceleration wise well up into big ticket range. The leap in performance and assistive technologies over the original Model S looks like an incredible commitment to the product and the vision of creating their version of the best possible car out there. It's the kind of product improvement that makes you question how true to words are the German brands to their famous taglines and what more that they could do if they were focused more on product rather than profit. Could they push even more performance today or make designs that much more daring and stunning?
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MDarringer - 10/16/2014 8:56:09 PM

-1 Boost

Not a DAMN thing. Tesla is a confidence swindle. As a car company it has NOT been even remotely proven for quality, durability, or reliability. Until Tesla makes it to 25 years after the S with an impeccable record, I will view them a the detritus of a Taco Bell binge needing to be flushed.

chewy - 10/18/2014 5:45:50 PM

+1 Boost

Well no car brand has impeccable quality/reliability record for 25 years. Sure it's too early to tell how reliable Tesla will be. But the performance/style is way ahead of anything else with batteries and near matches the best gasoline powered cars. And the dual motor makes a huge jump in performance. The pace of improvement is pretty awesome over at Tesla and right now they aren't pinching any pennies on development. The German brands do cut corners somewhat to support their ginormous profits though.

TomM - 10/17/2014 9:13:07 AM

+1 Boost

I agree - Tesla is NOT an example of anything we should car about
They sell a car that - right now has no real competition - for a SET price - and are trying to limit the market for their cars - and service - to their own facilities.

As long as they can charge whatever they want - for the cars and for the service - they are doing OK. Ten years from now - when EVERY major manufacturer will be selling EV's with a longer range - the questions are
1 - Will they even exist?
2 - Will they actually have any value compared to what you paid

While I would not compare them to Taco Bell - I would compare them to Boston Market Chicken - which nearly went belly up when their business model ceased to support them when competition came in.

mre30 - 10/17/2014 10:50:34 AM

+1 Boost

I also agree - Tesla is NOT an example of anything we should care about. They got what is essentially a "free" factory, during a post-crash government "green" shakedown, they get some tax benefits that will eventually expire, and they are profiting from their low-volume, non-longevity tested car that has boring styling.

Tesla is the real "government motors". Follow the subsidy-money trail...