Quote:
Originally Posted by Verdi
When the EV market matures people will value other things than range and price. Now you have "EV buyers" but soon you will have "budget EV buyers", "premium EV buyers" and so on.
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I believe we are there already:
- Model S for "premium" EV buyers
- Everything else for "budget" category.
Sadly, i3 is neither here, nor there.
It's priced as "premium" EV, but its sub-sub-compact size and range belongs squarely in the "budget" category.
Even there, it is becoming less and less competitive, as other "budget" offerings are coming out with longer range and better acceleration (Bolt later this year, Model 3 early next year).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Verdi
Just like on ICE cars now. People still buy a 340i when they can get a Nissan for much less.
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Absolutely true, but if 340i was the size and had the acceleration of a plain vanilla MINI cooper, they wouldn't.
I'm not trying to engage in theoretical discussion, just reconciling EV sales #s with our theories:
http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/
Quote:
Originally Posted by bailyhill
I agree with you and think you have a good sense of the market. My wife and I each own a BMW, and I don't think that will change going forward. I hope we can live our our retirement years at a level of i3, X3D or X3e luxury vehicles. [...] These do cost more, but that is what I spent my life working to achieve, be able to afford nice things.
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I've also owned BMWs for 20+ years (starting with E30s), but never exclusively, nor fanatically.
Unfortunately, BMWs have slipped behind Tesla in terms of "coolness" and technology edge.
By a huge margin.
Take a look at what Model S has done to the US large luxury sedan sales. That market has remained largely stagnant over the past 3-4 years at ~100-120K units, but Model S's has gained market share to ~50% at the expense of all other makes and models, including Merc's S-class and BMW's 7-series.
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/10/16...n-q3-us-sales/
Same story in Europe:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwin.../#2c8a78cb7588
Anyone wants to bet against Model 3 doing something similar to 3-series and i3 over the next few years?
I do see replacing BMW's with Tesla's over the next few years.
If that happens, it will be 100% BMW's fault for sitting on its ass and not providing a technologically competitive product offering.
And for having become less "cool" then Tesla.
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