Quote:
Originally Posted by Martinjlm
This was a difficult one for the Domestic 3 manufacturers.
FACT: Full Size pickups are THE money factory for all of them. Damage that and you can watch their profits crumble.
FACT: Tesla pounded their chest stating the intent to come to market with an electric truck that would blow away everything the Domestic 3 had on the market. Given what the Model S and Model X did to BMW and Mercedes sales in Europe and the US, they could not simply ignore that. They basically had two option…1) weather the storm. 2) beat Tesla to the punch. GM and Ford choose option 2. Get to the market first with a strong EV truck.
Because Tesla is notoriously late in introducing the products that they brag about and take reservations on. Cybertruck is two years late from Elon’s promise of having the 1st electric truck on the market. It’s actually 4th.
So both Ford and GM had to figure out how to develop an electric truck that could blunt the temptation to migrate to Tesla, but to do it in a way that doesn’t allow EVs that will lose money on a unit by unit basis for several years cannabalize sales of the high profit ICE based trucks. Is a high altitude tightrope exercise. Make them good enough to beat Tesla, but not so good that buyers wholesale shift to the EV versions of their cash cows.
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Tesla made a huge mistake making their Cybertruck out of stainless steel. I think that decision even though it was marketed as a huge selling point will be the downfall of this product. Its terribly ugly even though that's MY opinion but Tesla consumers are VERY brand loyal and will buy it anyway. They have a LOT of orders already. The question is how long will people still be interested in their order if it takes 2-3 years before its delivered?