I'm not defending musk. So tired of that qualifier in this thread.
The prius is not an EV it's a hybrid and nobody thought they were cool. Even tree huggers like me. Tesla made electric cars cool until everyone found out how poorly they were assembled. Then the other manufacturers, seeing that electric cars could be profitable, started tooling their assembly lines. You have your history completely backwards.
I’m not defending musk. So tired of that qualifier in this thread.
did not say you were.
The prius is not an EV it’s a hybrid and nobody thought they were cool.
it sold incredibly well and proved that there was a market, and yes it was a hybrid as the technology wasn't there. do tesla get kudos for waiting for battery technology now?
You have your history completely backwards.
do you think that the prius came out after a tesla? you need to explain this one.
The new Prius Prime is cool af in my opinion.
it doesn't matter what you find personally cool for what it's worth, then or now.
If I didn't put that qualifier there would be comments talking shit about musk. Read the rest of this comment section and it's clear as day.
The prius did not sell incredibly well. That is completely false. It sold well enough to be profitable but even a standard Corolla sold more year after year. It took a decade or more before any other serious options existed.
The previous paragraph covers your next question. You have your history wrong about how well the Prius sold and how long until EV's became desirable.
A better wording would have been that the new Prius is more desirable than the previous generations. Which reinforces the previous Prius not "being cool."
The prius did not sell incredibly well. That is completely false. It sold well enough to be profitable but even a standard Corolla sold more year after year.
.... uh, yes. the traditional fossil fuel based card sold better than a car selling to a new market. do you want to compare it to, oh i don't know, a ford focus too? are you trying to talk about the hybrid version that came out in the 2010's like 15 years after the prius?
if you want to make the argument that the prius wasn't instrumental in proving the EV market, good luck. you won't find much backing with these talking points.
Because there was nothing else to compare it to at the time. It was the first viable hybrid, we agree on that. The part that I'm having a hard time explaining is that it was not hugely successful and not the motivation for all current EV's. It wasn't even a plug-in hybrid until 2012. That is 9 years AFTER Tesla.
Major manufactures did not attempt EVs until Tesla made a killing on them. Most of them did not even make serious attempts at hybrids until the mid 2000's.
Because there was nothing else to compare it to at the time.
grab this thread, you can maybe start to understand how they were instrumental in creating and proving the EV market that Tesla would eventually capitalise on top of
I understand your argument, I just don't think it is right.
The Prius never motivated other car manufactures to make EVs. Seriously, tooling the assembly lines did not begin until after Tesla.
Why did it take a decade to go from Prius to Tesla, but a only a few years after Tesla for other manufactures to start seriously producing hybrids and EVs?
I mean the answer to your last thing is battery technology. the lithium ion battery boom is the real driver of EV's in general. you really gotta understand the role that Tesla played here is to surf on the wave, not create it.
a bunch of weirdo cars came out that were based on lead acid batteries in the 70s? i think, that killed that market
Prius proved the market existed with their Hybrid, that demand was there. they also totally dominated the market with their brand and no one else was tooled up for it.
Batteries with the capability of pushing hybrids, ev's boomed into mass scale in the mid-2000's
Tesla and many others take advantage of both of these things happening to great success.
Tesla built charging infrastructure. Nobody was willing to rely on an EV, that’s “electric vehicle”, because they didn’t trust the range or the ability to recharge.
That’s why instead of producing EVs, it produced one hybrid, which never at any moment ever asked a consumer to rely entirely on electricity for their transportation.
I mean the answer to your last thing is battery technology.
I agree that battery tech is what brought about full EVs. I still disagree that the Prius did.
Tesla and many others take advantage of both of these things happening to great success.
Could you please name a just couple of the "many others" that successfully implemented the new battery chemistry into their cars? Actually just one other would do. I apologize if that sounds rude it's not my intention. I can't think of a better way of wording this.