On 22/06/2023 12:10 pm, Tom Worthington wrote:
It will be interesting to see if Tesla's approach of selling cars mostly online will catch on, or showrooms and dealers will remain. Tesla has only 13 Australian showrooms, whereas BYD has 56.
And in an oft-repeated echo of Henry Ford's Model-T ("any colour you want as long as it's black"), I understand Tesla buyers can have any colour they want as long as it's white; other colours are only available for additional cost.
A couple of weeks ago I joined the end of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the M5 moving at ~0-12 kph. When I reached the scene of the heralded "incident" I found staff from various emergency services standing around scratching their heads and a Tesla in the outside lane with what appeared to be a collapsed front left-hand suspension.
On arriving at my appointment I apologised for being a little late and mentioned an odd, one-car accident involving a Tesla. "Front wheel fell off?" "Well, yes... how do you know?"
He mentioned two similar incidents involving friends. Some appropriate googling seems to confirm the problem, and reveals that the steering wheel on at least one model can also fall off, which I suppose makes getting out of the car easier.
Elon Musk reportedly stated that Tesla had to improve their build quality. It will be interesting to see how Tesla vehicles sell when the availability of EVs really takes off here, including the Toyota-Subaru EV which I understand appears in showrooms later this year.
_David Lochrin_ _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
