Tesla Still Selling A Ton Of Great Electric Cars – CleanTechnica

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Some readers have criticized me, CleanTechnica, and other sites for “turning on” Tesla and becoming far too negative about the company in recent months or years. This article is going to focus on some positive things that have perhaps been left unsaid too much lately. However, first, I would like to note that any objective coverage of a company is bound to get more critical when the company massively misses targets for a big new product rollout (robotaxis, for several years) and massively misses quite recent sales and growth forecasts (going from what was supposed to be 50% growth a year, on average, up through 2030 to having what is so far a year of declining sales). Objectively, if you are not covering this for what it is, you are not doing your job in this industry — unless your job is simply to be a biased fan. These are failures, notable ones, from the biggest or second biggest EV company in the world (depending on how you measure things).

However, despite Tesla missing big product and growth targets, the company is still producing and improving an extremely large number of electric cars.

Even after 5 years of ownership, my Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (SR+) is an amazing car. I love it. It’s nearly as nice and as good as it was when I bought it 5+ years ago. When I considered trading it in a year ago for a new car, my kids were avidly against it. They love it, it’s their car, and why would we sell it? If the same car was being produced today, it could still be a highly compelling and popular option. However, the current Model 3 is hardly the same car at this point. It has much better suspension, sound insulation, internal components, batteries, infotainment, seats, glass, and I’m sure other things I’m forgetting. It’s an amazing car, probably unmatched on the market in its class. There are other great options now, like the Hyundai IONIQ 6 and several small electric crossovers, which spread out the sales, but there’s a strong case the Model 3 is still the best midsized sedan you can buy. As a result, Tesla is still selling more than 100,000 units of the Model 3 a quarter, or nearly half a million a year. That’s a lot of cars, mostly replacing gas-powered cars. (My one gripe: there is no longer a shorter range option in the US, and the base price is $42,500, or $41,500 with a referral code. However, that said, with a $7,500 federal EV tax credit, that comes down to $35,000, or $34,000 with a referral code, which is far below the average new car price in the US — $48,401.)

Then there’s the Tesla Model Y, which, by some important metrics, is better than the Model 3. (It offers a lot more cargo space, a hatch, more passenger space, and easier ingress/egress.) I consider it to be one of the best crossovers on the market everyplace that it’s sold. Many consider it the absolute best, and it has been the best selling model of any kind globally over the past couple of years. It offers top-of-the-line infotainment, top basic driver assist tech, unbeaten seat comfort, great suspension and handling, plenty of storage, more rapid acceleration than any sane person needs, and 337 miles (542 km) of range at a base price of just $45,000, or $44,000 with a referral code*. Throw the $7,500 tax credit and you’ve got that down to $37,500, or $36,500 with a referral code. You can’t find a better deal. You can find some similarly good deals. The Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, Volkswagen ID.4, and Chevy Equinox are all great, similar options as well, but many people — and the market as a whole — argue that the Model Y is well above the rest. More than 300,000 Tesla Model Ys are being sold each quarter. About 900,000 units were sold in the first three quarters of the year.

Together, 1,232,163 new units of the Model 3 and Model Y were delivered to customers in the first three quarters of this year. That’s 1.23 million new electric cars and crossovers finding their way to homes, from just two models. This is a massive success. Even if Tesla is not reaching its growth or robotaxi product targets, the company is already a highly successful company that is making a dramatically positive difference every single day of the year. Even if sales have dropped a bit or aren’t growing, Tesla is preventing an incalculable amount of horrible pollution with all of these sales. It is living out its mission in many regards, even if most of us would like to see a lower-cost Tesla come to market and even make a bigger difference by selling in even higher volumes. (Millions of cars a year? Is it possible?)

Cumulatively, Tesla has surpassed 6 million sales of the Model 3 and Model Y. That’s millions of fossil-powered cars that are not on the road because consumers checked out the Model 3 and Model Y and decided they were the best vehicles they could find for the money they had to spend. Together, they will pass another 6 million sales before any other BEV pair in the world. Perhaps BYD as a whole will pass up Tesla in world BEV sales in coming months or quarters, but even if it does, the core point is that both brands are working together to take polluting fossil-fuel-powered cars, trucks, and SUVs off the road. And these two companies continue to lead the market because they produce the most competitive, most popular, most valued affordable or semi-affordable electric cars in the world. We may have fun documenting the race for EV supremacy between them, but they are equally needed in order to clean up our skies and stabilize our atmosphere.

Tens of thousands of Tesla employees are producing some of the best cars and SUVs on the market. The vehicles get better year after year. Almost anyone I drive in my “old” 2019 Tesla Model 3 loves it, is wowed by it, and goes away considering whether they want to buy one next — or at least some other vehicle from Tesla. The vehicles easily sell themselves if you just get normal people into the passenger’s seat or driver’s seat for 10 minutes. Tesla has become an efficient, high-volume manufacturer that is still leading the market forward, even if it is not standing off on its own in the lead any more and has genuine competition from Ford, Chevrolet, Cadillac, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, and BYD.

*You can get $1,000 off of a new Tesla using a Tesla owner’s referral code. If you’re in need of such a code, you’re free to use mine: https://ts.la/zachary63404

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