Tesla's Competition in the Green Automobile Market

As the EV and HEV trend strengthens, key industry players are offering models that directly compete with Tesla. Competing models include the Chevy Volt and Spark, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius, Ford Focus, Honda Fit, Smart Car, Volkswagen Golf, BMW i3, and Mercedes Benz B-class EV (Grant, 2015). However, Elon Musk does not view these offerings as Tesla’s competition. With only 1% of total vehicle sales going to non-hydrocarbon burning cars, Musk identifies Tesla’s true competition as the gasoline cars with production rates of about 100 million per year (Musk 2014).

The concern for the environment has never been bigger than at the turn of the century. The growing acceptance of global warming, coupled with the growing green marketing galore gave impetus for the clamor for major auto companies to build a better and more affordable electric car. This plus the unpredictable oil price spikes and hikes, is intensifying the race to build the ideal car of the future at a greater height.

Their slogan is, “Burn rubber, not gasoline.” This is extremely beneficial for the company because it gives them a brand image and a concentration, as well as the ability to focus all of their efforts on being the best at electric vehicles. They’ve entirely ignored alternatives like diesel, ethanol, and hybrids. They’ve strayed from the known gas-electric hybrid, and plug-in hybrid to focus on their initial goal; zero-emissions, zero fuel. Competing companies like Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota are famous for the combination car, that can’t be considered a true electric vehicle without the plug-in and charge feature, and by still being partially fuel driven. On top of that, the Tesla Model S uses about half the energy of a Toyota Prius per mile, and achieves double the range. By focusing exclusively on the true electric vehicle, with a mindset that oil could run out one day, Tesla is unique and far ahead of the game.

“Our goal when we created Tesla a decade ago was the same as it is today: to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market as soon as possible.”1

Problem Statement: Disruptors of domestic and international competitors are expanding upon the alternative fuel vehicle market and can offer a wider variety of products ranging from hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fully electric vehicles due to the access to more resources available to them.

The car market has been ran by companies such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Ford, BMW, and many other companies, but one of the newer, up and coming companies in this market is Tesla Motors Inc. Tesla has been around for a little over 10 years, and have come quite a long way from where they began. Tesla now sells luxury electric vehicles different than any other electric vehicles today, and they have big plans for expansion in the future. Tesla may not be one of the biggest car companies today, but one day they will be considered alongside companies such as Toyota and Ford.

The aim and vison of Tesla Motors is to provide in the short run cars which are affordable to the average consumer, it started making first sport cars for the enthusiast for speed and environmental preservation, moving then to the second phase to the large market who choses affordable compacts and sedans which in turn will promote and stimulate the electric car trend.

Electric cars have to compete directly with the already established traditional vehicles. Traditional vehicles have created a market for themselves and are also now entering into the electric car business, giving tough competition to the electric vehicle manufacturing companies.

Founded in 1917, the BMW Group is now one of the ten largest car manufacturers in the world and, with its BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands, possesses three of the strongest premium brands in the car industry. The group also has a strong market position in the motorcycle sector and operates a successful financial services business.

In the market today, there are some factors that can pose a problem to all the market players’ including the Model S.  The idea of fully electric vehicles is still a new idea in the eyes of consumers.  The major concern for the market would be the location and proximity of charging stations for the vehicles.  Major cities are starting to increase the amounts that are located within them, but are still not as readily

Throughout the 20th century, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have held a firm grip on the U.S. car market. GM even was even able to control 50% of the market until about 1980. Ford and Chrysler also did considerable well during that period. However, globalization allowed foreign carmakers to maneuver their way into the U.S. market. Intensified competition then began to threaten the market shares of those leading companies. German companies entered the market with cars like Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW. They now currently own Porsche and Audi. The Japanese car industry have the luxury of owning cars such as the Honda, Toyota, and Nissan while Koreans have joined the market with

Tesla Motors Incorporated, an American company that designs, produces, and sells electric vehicles and their electric components, has become one of the fastest growing car companies in recent history. The company’s main goal was to start creating electric vehicles that were accessible and affordable to the public. Founded in 2003 and taking off successfully by 2009, Tesla Motors started selling the first mass-produced vehicle to use lithium-ion battery cells and hold a range of greater than 200 miles on just one charge. Along with building their own electric vehicle models, Tesla also builds electric powertrain components for vehicles from other automakers including cars such as the Toyota RAV4 electric vehicle. Tesla has begun to maximize

Rarity: Tesla Motors is known to have a differentiated product over other firms in the sense that it sells electric based cars. It is the only successfully running electric sports cars in the U.S. At the beginning sales were not enough to sustain the business but tesla motors proved it self after introducing the new model, Tesla Roadster 2. There is only few car manufacturing companies trying to enter this industry which makes Tesla Motors have a competitive advantage.

Tesla now has been recognized as a unique company in a general car market. It’s the first and only car industry that introduced electric car to the consumer in the very early stage. Nevertheless, it is still facing the problem called competition. Tesla just came to the market for over 10 years with the successful of only three models and there are still hundreds of other luxury car companies have been there for a decade such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, BMW and even middle or lower income class as Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi ect. With the market where majority of the consumers are currently using gasoline cars, Tesla will have to strive hard to get consumers to start thinking and get used to the new innovation and technologies. Tesla has very limitation on their type of cars where other company cars having different type of models. Mitsubishi has recently announced that they have introduced a hybrid car called Outlander PHEV where their system can be run either by gasoline, petrol or electric. This car was introduced as the ultimate in intelligent motion and can represent the next generation of hybrid and electric vehicles (Mitsubishi). More importantly, Tesla will be facing directly with Ford company who is reviewing its plans for introducing out autonomous vehicle by 2021 said Chief Executive Jim Hackett. Overall, even though Tesla Inc

Strength of Competition-Very high. Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar, Porsche, and more have invaded BMW’s market niche.