Tesla: isn't Musk's Chinese plant giving the Chinese all they need to steal his idea? | FerrariChat
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Tesla: isn't Musk's Chinese plant giving the Chinese all they need to steal his idea?

Discussion in 'Technology' started by bitzman, Oct 27, 2021.

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  1. bitzman

    bitzman F1 Rookie
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    wallace wyss
    #1 bitzman, Oct 27, 2021
    Knowing only the marketing and history angles of the car biz, it seems to me that Elon Musk is taking a chance on having a plant in Red China (phrase you don't hear anymore). What if relations between China and the US go South in a big hurry and they nationalize his plant and continue production under another name to meet the needs of first the people of China then one country after another? With his factory there they will know how to make every part of the car. On the other hand, as long as no war is declared, he only has to capture a tiny part of their market to sell thousands of cars. And I think Musk always has a trump card (is that word still useable?) such as he could press a button at HQ and shut off any Tesla (or whatever the Chinese would call it) in the middle of the road just as he now sends over-the-air updates to Teslas.
     
  2. Jaguar36

    Jaguar36 Formula 3
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    #2 Jaguar36, Oct 27, 2021
    You're assuming that Tesla has anything China doesn't already have and would want to steal. Tesla's biggest advantage was recognizing when battery technology had matured enough to make a viable EV. Everyone's pilling on now so thats gone. Now their biggest advantages are volume (allowing lower costs), brand name recognition (although they seem to be doing their best to destroy that), the fact that they don't have a giant legacy ICE network and staff to support and the Supercharger network.

    Their motors and inverters are slightly better than the competition, but its not really a big enough deal to be concerned with. Its not clear who actual owns the battery technology, Tesla, Panasonic, or CATL. Regardless, besides for scaling benefits they aren't leaps and bounds better than anyone else anyway.
     

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