Tesla – electric cars from Silicon Valley

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla cars says he stepped into producing electric cars, because he believed no classic car maker would take it seriously.  These cars are becoming quite a hit at the moment, and the European distribution center has been localized in Holland.

It is exemplary to see that this kind of evolution is coming out of Silicon Valley and that it gets started by a person with no heritage in car making. Probably another proof that it is hard to change the script if you have become a household name. The gusto that Tesla uses to design electric cars shows us that they take the consumer seriously. In fact every attempt to design an electric car by an existing car brand, gives you the idea that they stereotype the consumer of such cars.

Look at the Toyota Prius, personally I find it really fugly. But it sure gives you the idea that Toyota thinks that a hybrid car buyer does not care about the model, just about the cause. It looks lame, uninspired and generic. Tesla on the other hand gives you the idea that buyers of electric cars are in fact front runners and not main stream people or ecologists till death do us apart.

In Amsterdam the initiatives like Greenwheels have really taken off. Greenwheels is a network of cars through the city (and country) that can be reserved online and activated by a key card. It is an answer to ever rising car costs, fuel costs, car taxation, unanswered criminality and ever increasing  parking prices. It is a liability to own a car in a town like Amsterdam. People, young and old, are more often making the rational choice that they want to be mobile instantaneously, but do not need the possession of a car. If you have never been in European old cities and come from an American town, you might find this hard to believe, but owning a car can be very stressful. And this start up also got bought by Pon automobile, the local importer and distributor of German cars like Volkswagen and Audi. This means the current Peugeot Greenwheels cars will be replaced by Volkswagen Up-s eventually. The automotive industry is changing rapidly. Not because the classic players want it, but because the market is doing it. And those who see niches in the market and commercialize it, will be the winners. Sooner than you might think.