Illustrated by Derek BaconCar and Driver
From the September 2022 issue of Car and Driver.
A few years ago I booked $1000 for a Tesla Model 3. I ended up canceling it, because I wanted the most basic, $35,000 iteration of the car, and Tesla took so long to make the cars that I gave up. But I like Tesla products. The Model X is the stupid future, Model 3 is fun and Models can still smoke exotics in a drag race. I have never driven a car Model Y, because that one came out after Tesla launched its PR unit into orbit on a SpaceX rocket, but I bet it’s good too. So don’t get this wrong, Tesla superfans, when I say there could be trouble ahead for your favorite company.
Tesla has enjoyed more than a few years with the electric vehicle market essentially all to itself, and for a while established OEMs haven’t taken it seriously. But by building dreamy EVs and selling a million of them, Tesla has shown the rest of the world that electric cars can be more than shoddy cell phones. offered reluctantly to radio enthusiasts. Now we have Rivians and Lucids, 1000-horsepower Hummers and 800-volt Hyundais, and even a Ford F-150 EV hitting 60 mph in 4.0 seconds. Meanwhile, at Tesla, we still have the aforementioned lineup. Back around 2014 or so, confidence came from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, which still didn’t see Tesla as a threat. Now it comes from the other side, also not justifiable.
Genesis
Michael SimariCar and Driver
I have to think about all this as I climb 2023 Genesis GV60 Performance and came across the motorized glowing orb of a gear lever (above), reminding me that Tesla isn’t exclusively about fickle things. The Genesis also has a nice forged interior, an adapter to turn the charging port into an outlet, and a large button marked BOOST on the steering wheel. Tap that and the GV60 will go from 429 to 483 hp in 10 seconds, which is hilarious every time. You can drive it forward and backward using the key fob. You unlock with your face. It can add 165 miles to its EPA range in 18 minutes—if you can find the rare DC fast charger that does. Which brings me to Tesla’s remaining great advantage: the Supercharger network.
Sean Gallupbeautiful pictures
It’s hard to believe that even now, after billions of dollars of investment, the non-Tesla DC fast charging network is a mess. If you want to take an EV road trip, it’s easy in a Tesla and you can do just about anything else. But this, again, is not some sort of magic that is forever unknowable to every other company. In the end, others will have their Superchargers. And then, is Tesla still a company that should be worth three times as much as Toyota?
Back when the Model 3 was released, I was testing Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system in California, with a Tesla employee traveling with me, when the car suddenly slowed down for unknown reasons. “It’s doing it because it knows that there’s usually traffic here,” she said, “although there isn’t now.” I was less concerned with the car’s stupid movements than the fact that it was presented as proof that the system was indeed very good and clever. This kind of thing is a doorway into a corporate culture, where everyone is afraid to put bad news on the organizational charts, instead pretending that all is well forever. That’s how you end up, I don’t know, instead of a steering wheel, or bypassing the radar in your driver assistance system, or letting a key model go 10 years without a redesign. Fear brings silence that breeds bad ideas.
If I had reserved the spot and bought the Model 3, I would have probably liked it. I would probably also appreciate its commercial value for a Hyundai Ioniq 5. Sure, the Model 3 is still great. But it’s just a car.
