Tesla Killers: Attempts At Unseating Tesla A Huge 2016 Disappointment

Jan 04, 2017 10:52 AM EST | JP Olvido

Tesla Killers, it seemed, were the biggest disappointment of 2016. Car manufacturers who aimed at competing with the electric car company in the last year only highlighted Tesla's massive electric auto industry lead instead of catching up to it.

Tesla Killers a big 2016 letdown. The attempts of car manufacturers of the likes of Audi, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz to compete head on with Tesla with their own electric vehicles were all to no avail. Efforts made by Volvo, Jaguar, and Cadillac were equally fruitless.

Tesla has quite the experience building efficient battery packs for use in passenger vehicles. Their experience definitely adds to their advantage in the electric vehicle market.

Take for example the Mercedez-Benz B-Class battery pack. It is currently the fourth biggest battery pack on the market but was rated as only having 36 kWh. Tesla, on the other hand, currently offers 75 kWh, 90 kWh, and 100 kWh battery packs and are the first three biggest ones available. Although Mercedez-Benz's own Tesla Killer, the Generation EQ, will eventually be equipped with a 70 kWh battery pack, it is still 5 kWh lower that Tesla's lowest battery pack offering.

Tesla is offering ideas that actually match an experience for passengers in electric vehicles. Aforementioned car manufacturers that aimed to produce Tesla Killers only promised to create no more than the best possible electric car they can. Innovation was close to absent and only relied heavily on what Tesla would offer next. For instance, when Tesla's Autopilot was released it created a trend of self-driving cars that other car manufacturers rode on.

Recently, automakers are beginning to catch up with Tesla's battery pack capacity. The Bolt EV is an electric vehicle from Chevrolet. It boasts of a 60 kWh battery pack capacity for a subcompact car.

Tesla is continuously pushing to increase its vehicles' energy density. In addition, they are aiming to reduce costs with new battery cells and packs that will be manufactured at their Gigafactory inNevada. Dubbing vehicles as a Tesla Killers is definitely not doing competing car manufacturers any good as it seems that Tesla isn't going to get "killed" yet.

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