Dreams of owning a Tesla out of reach for Australian’s?

long road to mountains in distance
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Elon Musk and Tesla this week lived up to expectation and again helped out Australians and New Zealanders with the dropping of the price of the connectivity to Tesla’s. It got me to thinking about my dreams of owning a Tesla in Australia and how they still seem out of reach 2 years after the Model 3, the car for the masses, was released. Are peoples dreams of owning a Tesla out of reach for Australian’s?

The reduction in connectivity seems a small thing and normally it wouldn’t be significant, but the reduction was approx. 40%. Such an amazing and gracious act.

tesla with computer vision demo

However, over the last couple of years, we in Australia and by extension New Zealand, haven’t had a lot to celebrate when it comes to the price of electric vehicles as prices are way out of reach for your average person. 

I am not wealthy and in some cases I live from pay check to pay check due to the increase in living expenses over the last 10 years. Studying hard for many years has allowed me to have have a reliable job. I have a loving family and I want to look out for them as much as I can. This includes protecting them when they are driving to work or school. 

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About 4-5 years ago I, like thousands before me, scrolled through YouTube looking for something to occupy my interest and I came across a video talking about Tesla. I had not heard about Tesla, the mission or a guy named Elon Musk. What I saw was a car that was truly amazing, revolutionary, and above all it was considered the safest car on the road. 

Up until this time I had not really been aware of the new evolution of the electric car and a person called Elon Musk. 

Since then, until now, I have been a kid in a candy store absorbing all the information I can and gaining a greater understanding of their purpose and mission. I found a community that was passionate, friendly and great fun covering the globe and looking at every aspect of the vehicles, the company and the mission. They have been a great companion over the years and have given more than they take. I am grateful for this.

many feet coming together
Photo by Ingo Joseph on Pexels.com

When the Model 3 was announced to the world I had hope! Hope of being able to afford the car of my dreams and hope they were not out of reach in Australia. Dreams of owning a Tesla out of reach for Australian’s?

Tesla has worked the last 10 years to deliver the car to the masses. The promise was a car that would be affordable so that the average mum and dad could afford it. This has fed my passion and desire to own the Tesla model 3 ever since the announcement.

red model 3 driving away
Image courtesy of www.Tesla.com

However, my glee at an affordable car was short lived when the prices were announced for the Model 3 in Australia. The chance of owning a Tesla for the average family is becoming more and more out of reach letting many people’s dreams of owning a Tesla in Australia become further out of reach. 

I trust Elon Musk’s vision for Tesla and he has shown that he and Tesla are open to price changes as demonstrated by the changes to the connectivity fee. A business needs to earn money to help grow the business and the vision is to build gigafactory’s on every continent which should assist with the reduction of costs and flow on to price as we have seen in China.

So……. are my dreams of owning a Tesla in Australia truly out of reach?There doesn’t seem to be a clear answer but there are possible solutions.

Currently we as a global community are finding our lives turned upside down, and the last thing anyone would expect a reduction in prices occurring anytime soon. One might see prices rise due to a downturn in production out of Fremont due to its closure whilst isolating.

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However, where one door closes another opens and in Australia and New Zealand right now there is opportunity for Tesla to thrive. Airlines are grounded and people are starting to emerge from isolation and will want to travel. Now is the time to drop the price and let people experience the Tesla life. Take this opportunity to make prices affordable, allow leasing, bring Made in China Model 3’s into the country and help to drive opportunities to bring the price down. 

Are dreams of owning a Tesla out of reach for Australian’s? No if the above opportunities were implemented. If they were it would let dreams become reality and watch the sustainable future appear before our eyes.

Dave. 

Dave the cartoon image
Written by David McCann 25/4/2020

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EV HQ

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Let’s Choose …….electric cars impact the environment

Take a breath and you will fill your lungs with clean pollution free air. If electric cars impact the environment it may be the same.

3 months ago, we worked, we played, we drove, and we enjoyed life. We had become immune to the subtle changes around us. So subtle that even the air had changed, and we didn’t really care.

The environment had gone through a significant change and we had been enjoying our lives we didn’t really notice. Many scientist and climate change advocates had been talking about the levels of pollution that had become over whelming for the earth to manage for years. Were we not listening? Did we not want to listen? or Were we to ignorant to listen? Why worry? nothing is going to happen to me!  I am having a great life this is something I don’t need to worry about.

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Then something happened that will forever have an impact upon each of our lives. A small city in China, a place no one really had ever heard of until it became ground zero for one of the worst virus outbreaks in the last 50 – 100 years.

Many countries had to shut down, close the doors and turn the wonderful life off. Many people complained, many people didn’t understand and many more felt that their god given right to do whatever they want was being taken away.electric cars impact the environment

Regardless of how people felt, within a couple of weeks something truly amazing started to occur. Blue sky returned to large cities, beautiful mountain ranges thought lost from view started to reappear, all sorts of animals, dogs, deer’s, tigers, lions, badgers and birds all returned to take the place of the humans that disappeared.electric cars impact the environment

Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2020) – “Air Pollution”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution’ [Online Resource]

Summaryhttps://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution

The air smelt different and clean and the sun beat down like never before. The blue of the sky was more beautiful than could be recalled. The scents of the plants and flowers were now more pungent and enticing than ever.

Pollution not only dropped, it disappeared, to levels not seen for over 2 decades. Cities that were usually covered in a thick toxic SMOG had clear skies above them.

Unfortunately, this is only temporary whilst people are stuck in doors and not driving combustion engines and polluting the air with nitrogen dioxide and Co2.

It is Temporary !!!!!

But it can change, you see this is exactly how our modern cities could be if only we made some changes.

  • Converted cars to electric
  • Stopped factories from burning oil, gas and coal
  • Changed the way we look at our environment around us
  • Replaced the trees we have cut down.

The industrial revolution gave us many and varied wonderful things. Although it has also been pumping pollutants into the air for a couple hundred years and now we are the recipients of the negative effects. But we are at a tipping point! With the shutdown we are getting glimpses of what it could be like if only we lift our heads and start to make some changes.

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You see we almost had the opportunity 100 years ago to make the start of that change when electric vehicles were the dominant vehicle. However when the combustion engine, that Ford popularized with the Model T, was introduced the electric engine lost that battle. The idea however continued to sit in the background and every so often have a shot at being more than an afterthought.

Tesla in recent history has with their passion to convert the world to sustainable energy taken the electric vehicle to a level never before realized. In doing so they have again given us a shot as retribution and a possible solution to the current issue with pollution.

Introduction of electric motors, battery storage and renewable energy capture gives us the ability to make significant individual changes to the environment around us. But Governments also need to see the impacts and start to make significant change.

Recent events should give us a wakeup call!!!!!!!  We are Vulnerable! We need to appreciate the world that we are missing because we have not noticed the subtle negative changes that have impacted our environment and lives.

  • Let’s choose to buy electric cars, solar, wind and water energy solutions.
  • Lets choose to store that energy in batteries.
  • Let’s choose to influence our elected officials to make smarter choices that help people to breath fresh air and improve the skies around us.
  • Let’s choose to take an opportunity that came from a horrible situation and see what mother earth has to offer.
  • Let’s put back what we stole and bring light back to the cities we love.
  • Let’s start with a small step to recovery
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I have started my own journey by purchasing solar and had it configured to accept a battery. I back Tesla with my website as I believe they have the right attitude and philosophy. I look forward to the day when I can purchase a Tesla battery and I am passionately looking forward to the look day I cannot wipe the smile off my face when I take delivery of a Tesla vehicle.

Dave

Written by David McCann 18/4/2020

People are important!

man standing looking at a city black and white
Photo by Alexey Makhinko on Pexels.com

People are Important! In difficult times like we find ourselves, we, as a global community are being told to isolate, to keep ourselves safe and avoid contact with other people.

We need to keep a distance of 1.5 -2 meters if we have to go out to do essential things like buying food. I am sure as most people will have found that attempting to do this is not as easy as it sounds.

5 people on a beach sun set
Self isolate

Yet people are important! They are important to our wellbeing, our social interactions and our mental health. In the technological world we find ourselves we can still remain connected.

We have interactions thousands of times a day when not socially isolated. So, it is only fair that we try to replicate this with technical applications like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, House Party and more. Without this innovation we would be finding it a challenge to isolate as effectively as most countries have.

lady sitting at table with computer having coffee
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Companies

Where this becomes problematic is when companies need to continue to grow and develop in these hard times. Tesla has made inroads prior to this virus to make sure that it has residual, sustainable systems that allow for ongoing production and growth of the brand.

factory of Tesla

Tesla has had to shut down the Fremont Factory at a time when they were hitting their stride for the beginning of 2020. In doing so they ultimately cannot produce the Model X, Model S, Model 3 or Model Y in the United States.

They still had deliveries of stock that they have been able to make over the last month using the social distance no touch delivery. Something that any other car dealer may find challenging. How have they achieved this? Software! They have the capabilities to control the car remotely and transact with little interaction face to face. Talk about great innovation.

tesla factory
Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.com

More importantly, Tesla built factories in China Shanghai to help with the local production of the Model 3 and Model Y into the future. This foresight of manufacturing is proving to be a much smarter choice than probably ever realized.

With the recent events China, who has been dealing with the Virus since early December, are now coming out of their quarantine period and starting to ramp back up to full production of the Model 3 and beginning to make good progress on the Model Y factory.

old world version of earth
Photo by Aaditya Arora on Pexels.com

If it turns out that Fremont Factory is not open in the foreseeable future, then is there a possibility for the Shanghai Gigafactory to send some model 3’s to the USA to sell. Granted there is a lot of hurdles that would need to be jumped before ever entering that market but the fact that another factory can produce Tesla Vehicles is important to the company’s survival.

They could send maybe 10% of their production abroad just to keep the supply trickling out to satisfy a variety of countries. It highlights that Tesla is still working to achieve its goals especially in tough times.

So, what can Tesla do during the time when the factories have been closed?

They can build ventilators

Opportunities

Elon Musk has in recent times with a team of his engineers turned their minds to helping the people most affected, those requiring ICU beds and ventilation. They have looked at what they create with the Tesla vehicles, looked at the parts and the HVAC knowledge and built a ventilator. Just incredible.

A video recently emerged from the engineers at Tesla that outlined the progress they have made. Their progress is nothing short of amazing when you consider they have never worked with medical equipment and, they, within a couple of weeks created a working prototype.

Adaptability in adversarial times helps to grow the brand but also shows compassion for the world around us. Tesla’s mission is to transition the world to sustainable energy and in doing so to help people across the globe to enjoy a world with a better environment than before. This philosophy seems to inspire and extend beyond vehicles when times are tough and change of focus is required.

So, I guess the message is simple, stay in touch, keep family safe and in contact, Tesla can survive during this tough time and continue to support all EV’s as the environment needs them more than ever.

Finally, I just want to say Happy Birthday to my Dad. You are an amazing person and we love you very much.

People are important, family is sacred and the world around us is precious.

easter eggs
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Happy Easter  

Stay Safe

Dave

Written by David McCann 11/4/2020
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Different Perspective

Different Perspective. As more and more countries become part of the COVID -19 story it is important for those who are directed to self-isolate to do just that. Obviously, this is important to stop the spread of the virus but on the flip side there may be great benefits and leaps forward in technology that we may not have seen for many years had COVID -19 not occurred.

Yellow sun cartoon with black background and man standing on ledge in front.

As we are asked to self-isolate and work from home, we are faced with changing our behavior to adapt to new ways of managing our daily lives. What this brings is change in thinking and processing of information. This change in behavior can lead to breakthroughs and fresh ways of looking at stale ideas.

Man on a ledge over looking city

Tesla

In the case of Tesla, we may see changes in some of the fundamental tools that tesla has been developing. Let’s take for example the Full self-driving package. This has been evolving for a long time and Elon has said a number of times, that, in a couple of months it will start version one of “Feature Complete Full Self-Driving”.

Due to the self-isolation it may be possible for the brainy engineers at Tesla to develop fresh ways to explore old problems that enhance and grow the possibilities of what the full self-driving system might achieve. This may help to accelerate the development of the full self-driving package.

This is not just isolated to Tesla all companies that allow their workforce to isolate, think and trouble shoot problems from a different perspective may just give us the next big thing, or evolution.

Isolation benefits

It is exciting to think that we as a society have given people the ability to breath, to look around and see a different perspective, to collaborate in a way that previously had been talked about but seemed to hard to execute. This change is significant as we will never see the world in the light that was but in the light of what is and can be.

Elon Musk has been looking at the world in a different way for years. Finding the potential in abstract thought that has allowed him to find the beauty in old thinking and deliver products and ideas that inspire, that invigorate, that encourages passion and ultimately sparks the imagination of the next generation to not just look at the next 10 years, to not look at the next 50 years but to dream of what the next 100 years would look like and do build it now.

blue screwed up paper on book with light bulb drawing.

Just as apple said to “Think Differently” I believe we also need explore different perspectives. Let’s hope that at the end of all the isolation and the COVID-19 pandemic we can come out the other side, seeing the world from a different perspective, with hope and prosperity and a passion to see what we as a society are truly capable of.

I hope that during this time Tesla and its employees show their passion, their drive and their ability to see what the future can be and to do it now.

Dave

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