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Japanese, Chinese and Korean Cars Makers Are Serious About Catching Tesla

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Sandy Munro indicated that every OEM (original equipment maker) in Japan and most in China and Korea are buying his teardown reports on Tesla electric cars. Sandy only sold one of his reports in the USA. Many US makers have not been serious about making electric cars.

Sandy says the Cybertruck is a new class of vehicle. He compares it to the Chrysler minivan. He says the Cybertruck is similar to other vehicles but is not exactly like any other vehicle.

It will be iconic and will appeal to sportsman and those who want a small adventure.

Sandy thinks it will have huge sales.

Tesla and SpaceX are making their own alloys.

36 thoughts on “Japanese, Chinese and Korean Cars Makers Are Serious About Catching Tesla”

  1. I can understand that you want Tesla to have some track record before you commit. Me, I think because the cars are electric that they will last a while. Although replacing the batteries maybe an issue further down the line. The real issues with Tesla cars is that their fit and finish is not up to the Japanese standard. And their limited models might not appeal to all.

  2. Once again I can only speak for my personal situation, but trailers kind of assume that you aren’t going to be manoeuvring through multi-level car parks or dense city traffic.

    They also assume that you have another place to park a vehicle long term. Are another vehicle you have to register each year. And you have to “go home to fetch the trailer” whenever you need to carry something big, instead of just having cargo space as part of your daily driver.

    Trailers are a solution to many people’s needs, but when I looked at my needs I went with a well back ute.

    Note: needs change, and I ended up selling the ute a couple of months ago.

  6. I heard one speculation that the Gigafactory (or Tetafactory) will eventually be one of the products that Tesla sells to other car manufacturers. It was speculation based off of a comment Elon made, but it does have merit IMO.

  8. The Cybertruck is not really a pickup…as all the pickup people keep reminding us. And it is not electronic music vs country & western style divergence, the real divergence is that pickup trucks guzzle fuel. This does not.
    I do think they may need a second version that is narrower. Sell that to the rest of the World. Make it in China or Mexico.
    The US definitely wants the big one.
    I do worry that the changes that they are making are going to hurt sales. Elon said the angle down the side was changing and length was shortened. I would not touch that angle. I would modify the fenders slightly. Make them less symmetric. more of a forward leaning look. Definitely need options on the wheel look. Foot holes in the rear bumper. And at least an optional integrated wench in the front. And they are clearly going to need windshield wipers even if they manage to skip mirrors.
    The foam I suggested on the hood for pedestrian safety could also provide a channel for the windshield wiper…meaning less modification of the design and retaining the shape of the metal. I think there is only 1 other reasonable option for the wipers: 1 wiper with resting position strait up to retain aerodynamics.

  10. If any car hits another stationary car, tree or wall strait on at 60 mph people die.
    Crumple zones are a joke. Automakers have gamed them. If the test is for 40 mph then they make the entire crumple zone mash at 40 mph, because that results in the lowest g-forces at 40 mph, and the lowest injuries. 45+ and things get ugly.
    Do they have no trucks, vans or semis in Europe? No walls? No trees?
    No, if they don’t allow the Cybertruck and Tesla solves the pedestrian issue, then it is political…protectionary.

  12. AFAIK, just about any serious company spends considerable time analysing their competitors products.
    Yes, you might get good reports from a 3rd party, but are they really going to ask the questions your own people really want to know? Is reading someone else’s report an adequate substitute for handling, using, testing the opposition’s product yourself?
    And if you have specific questions, do you actually want to ask them? In many ways, the questions you ask might give away as much valuable information as you receive.

  13. Daimler got in trouble for renting a Model X from a rental car agency, tearing it down, then trying to return it hoping the rental agency would be none the wiser.

    Google ‘How Mercedes got caught trashing a rental Tesla Model X’ for the story (not sure whether links can be posted.

  14. Europe? The place that makes Bentleys? Rolls Royces? Audi Q7s? The place that INVENTED the luxury urban 4wd wagon (Range Rover). The place that makes G63 AMGs? Bugatti Chirons?

    Yeah, they won’t accept big, heavy cars.

  15. When I was faced with a choice of van or open tray light truck, I went with the option that did not have a hard limit on the size and shape of the load.

    If I want to carry something that is a bit too tall to fit in the van… too bad.
    In the ute, I just load it into the back, tie it down tightly, and don’t drive under a low bridge.

    I’ve ended up hauling stuff that would have needed a 6 tonne truck to have a big enough “box” at the back.

  16. In Tokyo at least I have seen more Tesla’s than other brand pure electric vehicles. But the demographics are a bit more skewed there so it isn’t representative of the country as whole.

  17. You have a dedicated, dispassionate team whose job is to tear down everyone’s vehicles. You think they are only tearing apart Teslas? They also tear apart Bolts, Leafs, new model ICE’s etc.

  18. Yeah lots of people like me are interested in electric but plan on keeping our cars for a decade which means we want cars not made in tents.

    But the first electric Honda/Toyota? I’m interested.

  19. The Japanese don’t buy Teslas. The Leaf outsells all of Tesla’s cars combined in Japan.

  21. Fair enough in some cases mostly rural areas. It’s just that I see a lot of pickup trucks driving around Calgary that i’m sure have never hauled manure. I suspect it’s people who like to imagine they are hard working ranchers

  24. Agreed, that would solve the part about pedestrians, but passive safety measures are not only to protect pedestrians. What about the other cars ?

    In Europe we are quite fond of tiny city cars, if a Cybertruck hits a Fiat 500 at 60mph you will be using a spoon to recover the people on the Fiat 500.

    There is a reason we started using crumple zones on every car in the sixties, before that we had killing machines on the road. I don’t dare to think about police-Cybertrucks on hot-pursuits within a city, things can get ugly very fast.

  25. oh .. so China / Japan / Russia / UK / The Whole Middle East / Brazil / India .. have no money at all and don`t buy cars? Thus don`t matter?
    and er yes the EU does buy cars and losing that market does mean lost sales BUT it does not mean lost sales for the REST OF THE WORLD.

  26. Easy to address. The Europeans just want some protection for pedestrians a little give from the vehicle. That can be accomplished by an inch or two of foam on the bumpers and hood. That would work better anyway.

  27. Not random people. Sometimes it is best to get an independent review of your products since your people are not going to objectively review their own products.

  28. Other cars makers have a chance of catching Tesla because brands matter. Brands that have strong loyalties like BMW, Mercedes, and Honda can survive. I doubt Tesla can provide the large variety of look and feel that the public demands. Tesla has the advantage in technology but the other car companies have the advantage of brand loyalty. It is a race. Tesla has to grow fast while it still has the advantage so it can establish its brand.

  29. very few light trucks as it happens. remarkably few. Their preference is for large vans for the same sort of niche.

  31. I remember that with the model 3 BMW didn’t buy any tear down reports, they just bought a model 3, shipped it to Germany and tore down themselves.

  33. I wouldn’t read too much into the lack of sales, businesses with competent capacities have little need to buy teardown reports from random people.

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