At this time though nothing competes with a Tesla.
I would slightly modify that statement. At this time nothing competes with the Tesla Model 3, which is the only mass market vehicle Tesla is selling in very high volume. By the end of 2021, that will be expanded to nothing competes with the Model 3 and the Model Y.
It would have been too long a post and I wanted to keep it short, but those two models, which will be unassailable come end 2021, were "vapourware". They were LATE and Musk was denounced as a charlatan for saying Tesla would deliver them.
Tesla has more than delivered on range, longevity, battery life and a whole host of other things they "promised". Tesla will also deliver on FSD which is also being claimed as "vapourware". It is only when you get down to the extremely difficult task of pushing a new concept through to volume production that you see just how hard it is. Witness delays.
Today the shorts denounce the Cybertruck and the Semi as "vapourware". Ditto the Solar roof.
In 5 years time the Cybertruck, the Semi and the Solar Roof will all take their place in the Tesla portfolio and it remains to be seen how popular they will become and how much competition they will have. Tesla has far more competition in the solar business than it does in vehicles today.
As for Nio? Tesla did all of this on EPA range assessments. It closed out battery swaps when it realised that with a 340 mile range and extensive supercharging, battery swaps were not needed.
Tesla peaks at 77kwh for the Model3, yet doesn't need battery swaps. In fact Tesla is building a facility to build 10,000 superchargers a year, so they can build the charging network even faster.
So back to Nio. Will their battery swap locations match Tesla supercharging locations? Even then, will people want to spend the time swapping batteries when an equivalent time at a supercharger could get them all the range they need in order to make it to the next charging stop where they can fully charge.
With 100kwh and 150hwh batteries, why is Nio even thinking about battery swaps? Is their tech so inefficient, or unreliable, that they need to swap batteries instead of just charging it.
So it is the right thing to do to question where Nio is right now. Because if they ever manage to sell to enough people, they're going to come right up against Tesla and others who are competing with Tesla, not Nio.
Will Nio survive? Are they really selling hype at a lower price than Tesla reality?
Someone should be asking these questions, just as much harsher questions should have been asked of Nikola.
Or, Musk's an asshole so Tesla is fake. The fact that Milton appears to be a "nice guy", but, in fact, is a scam artist, doesn't seem to percolate through some visions. Just because Musk is not the kind of person most would want to be friends with our work for doesn't mean that he is not honest, hard working and successful in his business life.
Not taking all of this into account makes a really good short. Most of them are assholes.