Tom Randall
@tsrandall
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Covering the future of transportation+energy. Opinions are, too often, my own.
New York, NY
Joined May 2009
For the first time, long-range EVs are available for less than the average cost of a new vehicle in the US. “Darwinian” competition and a slew of new models helped electric cars with 300+ miles of range reach another milestone in price parity 🧵
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4/ Tesla’s ambitions now go well beyond cars: Musk says EVs will be dwarfed by clean energy, robotaxis, humanoid robots—much like Nvidia moved past gaming chips and Amazon books. But worth noting: Those companies maintained their core market majorities 4/
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To be clear, Tesla still dominates. Over the past 12 months, it sold more than 5x as many EVs as its closest rival in the US. It also makes the best-selling car in the world and sells the most EVs globally. But the industry is closing the gap 3/
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It’s a rare and valuable thing to claim market majority in the US: Apple has it for smartphones, Google for search, Nvidia for AI chips, Tesla for EV. Peerless dominance helped each become trillion-dollar companies (though TSLA already lost that status) 2/.
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Tesla is on the verge of losing a key bragging right it’s held for the past six years: outselling all EV competitors in the US combined 🧵
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America is finally going to get its $25,000 electric car. Here's everything we know about efforts underway at four top manufacturers, with sales starting within a year: (🎁 link)
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Also the only time I've ever had a water-color portrait for a story illustration
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Had a blast writing about Tesla camping back then. Some of the best reader feedback I've ever received — people sent me dozens of photos from their camping adventures around the world
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Whoa. Pretty great option for car camping. Big improvement from when I first tried Tesla camping in a Model S, in 2016. Back then I had to lay down cardboard and bedding to bridge the seat fold in back. This looks luxurious by comparison.
Tesla has introduced a Model Y air mattress for $225. "Its three-inch, high-density foam filling creates a soft landing pad, and its waterproof polyester exterior is durable and smooth to the touch. The mattress quickly inflates with the included air pump.". Buy:
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“Affordability is the key success factor right now. If you want the scale to materialize, you need to be selling BEVs to the middle classes.” . Gift link to the full story:
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@AkshatRathi The easiest bar for EV value is total cost of ownership, incl gas savings and subsidies. For most cars & drivers, EVs easily cross the mark. For true price parity, the *average* EV needs to cost less upfront than the average vehicle. The IEA says it'll happen in US by 2030 5/
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EV price parity is difficult to measure. What constitutes gas-car equivalence varies from driver to driver. In the US, 300 miles of range has emerged as a benchmark for where advantages outweigh disadvantages for most drivers. As @AkshatRathi said, Americans get what they want 4/
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The EV industry has entered the Squid Game phase of competition. This was spelled out in a talk last week by Stellantis CEO Tavares. Stellantis has been slow to EVs but will launch a $25k BEV Jeep "very soon" as part of a large-scale US offensive 👀 3/
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Long-range EV affordability is most apparent in US lease prices, which increasingly wrap EV tax credits into the monthly payment. Unlike byzantine rules for EV purchase credits, lease credits cover all EVs & incomes, making it easier to cross shop 2/
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RT @chrislhayes: Hasn't penetrated US discourse that the next president of Mexico is likely to be its first woman president, a Jewish woman….
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US and worldwide EV sales are both expected to grow ~20% this year. To put that in perspective: If the global market continues at this current "slowdown" pace indefinitely, virtually all new cars would be electric in a decade. Gift link:
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No car company besides Tesla has been able to sell more than 100,000 EVs a year across its US lineup. This year Hyundai, GM and Ford are each on track to reach that 100,000 threshold of mass production, a potential turning point for EV competition 6/
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Tesla’s gap year left an opening for other EV makers, but there’s a self-fulfilling aspect to all the talk of slowdown. Some carmakers are holding back investments for more market clarity — but the hole only gets deeper until they break into mass volumes 5/
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The biggest source of uncertainty for the US outlook is the product pipeline at Tesla, which is responsible for half of the country’s EV market. Tesla relies on just two cars — the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y SUV — for 95% of its sales.
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