World wide or just in America/Europe?
Worldwide, as per Toyota selling 10.5 millionā¦.
Now that deserves a thread all by itself!
Well, this is looking at profit. In other words the money they charge people above the actual cost of producing the vehicle. That second graph (putting them at nr. 2 in profit/vehicle) isnāt a good advert for a consumer. It is only good for a shareholder 
Well, it is good for the company, and eventually good for you and me, as they will not easily go belly up. Teslas are luxury cars, for sure, so a premium there. I would think, the profit per car is more an indication their efficiency than anything else.
Recently Tesla increase they prices, more to cope with and manage demand as the waiting lists were more than a year. Now, when you order and include the $12k for Autopilot, you get preferred delivery, bumped in the Q. Imagine that quite a lot of that $12k are escrowed, so more profit laterā¦
Groetnis
I sincerely hope Toyota can do what they always do. Look over the American shoulder, and then optimise the s&%t out of it
Well most of them should, at least look at Tesla, up to now, almost nobody it seems are doing that. To give some sense of this. None of the OEMs are doing running changes on the line, well none significant. That is all that Tesla do. A facelift may happen once every 2-3 years for the OEMs, then that constitutes a new engine derivative or some new bumpers etc. Look at the issue when the ECUs chip supplies dried up, it stalled a lot of OEMs production. Tesla had new designs and chips implemented in a few weeks, did not loose much production.
Once again, I marvel at what Tesla is doing, the speed and the scale. Sadly I donāt think I will ever own a BEV. I did catch a UBER ride in a standard Model X once in London to get to the Airport. It was cool. As mentioned elsewhere, I will use the technology available locally, Diesel, Petrol or EV, not hybrid.
Groetnis
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Just because they arenāt copying them yet doesnāt mean they arenāt looking
In the end, I think a motor at the wheel (or close) rather than one up front with a drivetrain is where itās going to go. It is already happening: Toyota discovered that with the AWD RAV4 Hybrid, using electric drive for the rear wheels is a lot easier than fitting a drive shaft. As an off-road vehicle it is still a little rubbish, if the reviews are anything to go by, but the inevitable shift is happening (and also, an AWD thing made for snow-driving is hardly an off-road vehicle anyway).
In the mean time, Subaru is giving us the Soltera next yearā¦ which is again a colaboration with Toyota, just like with the 86.
Ja itās the BZ I posted about above a few posts back.
Groetnis
Yes, but a 4x4 one. Subaru actually makes pretty decent AWD cars that can go places others canāt. I was really keen on a (second hand) Forrester back in 2019, but what eventually sent me towards yet another Toyota was that the only way to get a manual gearbox was to go for the rather limp 2.0 liter petrol of the time. If you wanted the more exciting 2.5XT, your only option was a CVT. Now I actually liked the CVT more than the average slushbox, but there is very little reliability info on that box, and the info from America is that they need expensive overhauls just on the other side of 100k km. So I skipped that whole heap of uncertainty.
But if Subaru manages to make an affordable EV, even if the packaging is wrong, Iād likely look at it again. The Soltera is rumoured to be around 39k USD in base form. Which means 600k our side before import taxes, which means more like 800k. Which again makes it utterly unaffordable unless government comes to the table.
Very interesting video on EV startups, in very basic terms what it takes to make it. Basically the only EV only manufacturer who made it so far is Tesla and Rivian is showing promise, but the rest is still only pipe dreams even though some of the companies are worth millions of Dollars.
Beginning of the video, crazy that people could pre order a Tesla Roadster in 2017 for $250k but still have nothing to show for it. But if you bought $250k in Tesla shares in 2017 it would have been worth over $4 million today.
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Haha I also watched Marquesā video yesterday. I thought his analysis was actually quite good. Used to watch a lot of his videos, but I donāt spend much time on youtube anymore.
He recently had a video a out fast charging where I do feel like he missed a trick or two if he wanted to make it really good.
There may be hopeā¦.
VW/Seat & JAC China Sohol e20x SUV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sehol_E20X
So this may end up as a better small SUV to be sold in the EU and possible Worldwide. $ 20k in China is more like it, about 300-400km range and just normal SUV performance at 4m long with a 92kW motor.
Groetnis
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Now just the import taxes into SA to be āsortedā.
Nope, no import taxes to worry about, in the next 30 years it will be built locally 
Groetnis
We need this sarcasm emoji man 
I donāt know the exact details, but there is something about how a company that manufactures in South Africa gets certain advantages on the models they have to import. That makes it possible for a company with a local footpring, such as Toyota, to import some of their models (eg RAV4 and C-HR from Japan) at competitive pricing.
At the moment thereās just none of that going on for EVs. Tesla has no hope of bringing a car here, since it will be hit with a 25% import tax as well as an ad valorem luxury tax.
The point of the import taxes is to protect the local manufacturers. So it stands to reason that if a local manufacturer is willing to import an affordable EV, thatās our best chance of getting one.
Also, I would argue that the luxury tax, which presently kicks in at around 610k, really needs to be moved up. Significantly. Like, double itā¦
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Manuafacturers get credits for local builds. To simplify it work similar to this:
If you build 10 cars locally to export, then you can import 10 cars without that excesive tax. Itās a lot more complicated formula, but that is the basic idea so to make it compelling for car makers to build cars locally.
As an example BMW manufacter the X3 locally for export so they can import the other models without the tax.
Ford makes the Ranger locally and import other models.
Toyota makes the Fortuner and Corolla Cross and import other models.
VW makes the Polo and import other models.
etc. etc.
If they use local components it also adds to the formula.
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And thatās why I find talk about how advanced Tesla is somewhatā¦ pointless. Maybe if I emigrate it would matter, but if I stay here, my best chance is an established manufacturer, regardless if they put the electric motor in the wrong place The top sellers, namely Toyota, VW, and Ford, are the ones to watch closely. And increasingly, the Chinese manufacturers. GWM is making inroads with their Haval SUV. I would not be surprised if the first affordable EV is from them
With inverters and batteries I often use the Tesla analogy.
A Tesla is an amazing super advanced vehicle, but will be absolutely useless in SA because of zero support and backup.
I also think our best chance is the established manufacturers, the big Germans Mercedes, BMW, Audi is already well on their way, but only priced for the rich.
Ford SA is actually leaving the small car market, they discontinued the Fiesta and the Figo is also going soon, they will focus on SUVās and bakkies going forward. I know Ford has the F150 and Mustang EVās, donāt know if they have smaller EVās yet.
VW is also showing promise, if I remember they already have a full electric Polo and Golf in the EU.
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