Typical stuff. We should be looking at BMWs sales overall. I never see a shift to BMW cross overs in Southern California that would support its claim of a slight rise in sales in the US this year. BMW is now caught up in the emissions scandal in Germany, it just had a global scandal and faced injunctions over its cars catching fire even while parked but strangely all that was in the news was supposedly Tesla having that problem- BMW's problems were real but Tesla's supposed problems appear to have been bs pushed presumably by BMW. Now there is fud from an agency questioning Model 3 sales, which seems insane given the microscope Tesla has been operating under, the mission to change the world, the warnings about viability and mission odds and obvious preparation and expenditures and the actual sales results and the timing and the reduction in competitor shares 4-1 it appears. And odd because Tesla accelerated it already ambitious schedule and is still on target for the original schedule. But lets get to the crux of the matter, BMW sales are down (globally on the high end) and down in the US because of: TESLA. Just look at the history of what Tesla has done to BMW globally. Look at the state of its 7 series vs Tesla's S globally. Is that because people want to switch to cross overs? Look at the X then. Tesla will have a greater impact on BMW at the lower end and right now its hitting across BMW's full model range. BMW is still in denial. Lets say people in the US think sitting up a little higher in a vehicle is safer or feels safer and so there is some shift based on actual preference vice petrol market manipulation on emissions foot print with manufactures skewing supplied value to to vehicles that use more fossil fuel (note that preference only exists in the US quite suspiciously even against the US's own history) even then people who were paying attention would note that the Model 3 is safer than any of BMW's vehicles. Repeat, safer than any of BMWs vehicles. We also know the quality of the materials in BMW vehicles is way down. Tesla vehicles are better than BMW vehicles period. Tesla is a better company with proper social aims. Tesla cars represent far better value, safety, reliability, and performance and a far higher level of technology. BMW has the same sort of risk profile Ford has but BMW is a prelude happening right now. I am guessing the fossil fuel world sees the plight of BMW as being like coal, they think of breaching it as a kind of moat. Too late, its happened in the most competitive market. The difference right now between a Model 3 and any BMW produced is far greater than the difference between iphone and blackberry ever was while black berry was still around. I suppose we think the German government will bail BMW out. As an American I have some advice on this based on our experience with this and recalcitrant ICE makers. Don't bail them out, let the company die but rescue the workers and use that to reboot with viable green competitors. That will light a fire under the other laggards.
Here is the article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/business/dealbook/tesla-model-3-questions.html The whole point of it is try to say BMW 3 series aren't down in the US because of the Model 3. That is WRONG! All you have to do is look at hte trade ins (BMWs) and look at he customer loyalty stats and look at he history of Tesla vs BMW- Tesla is in its 7th year of beating BMW and it has been progressively taking share. Is it going to be able to hide behind a Trump tariff? What that the purpose of Trump making those odd noises about Germany Luxury cars- to help it hide?
That NYT article reads like it was written by a child. TM3 will continue to drawn customers from various market segments. It'll be interesting to see how many people delayed sedan purchases to but the TM3, and ultimately is the TM3 will stabilize sales in this segment.
Here is Top Gear in some pravda style BS trying to imply that you have to mod a Model 3 Performance to make it equal a M3 at the track. When that simply isn't true a Model 3 Peformance even with the track mode off will crush a BMW M3 at the track and apparently every other stock BMW ever made as can be seen from the Laguna Seca track time records. There has only be one highly modified M4 that cost $160K that could beat the Model 3 Performance at the track and not by much, but no stock BMWs. Randy Pobst drove it with an imperfected track mode and it matched the top euro performer the current top en Guilia. But Top Gear is trying to say you must highly modify a Model 3 performance just to match the M3. This is simply not so the Model 3 is something like 7 seconds quicker at Laguna Seca than a M3- it destroys the M3 and M3 cost more likely even than the modded unplugged Tesla Top Gear is trying to push. https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/tesla/unplugged-5dr-auto/first-drive
