I think you raise a good point.
But having said that, while comparisons between the two are inevitable, my personal opinion is that Tesla and Vmoto are essentially different types of companies.
At this point in time, electric cars are prestige items. Even in the Western World, most people are unable to afford a Tesla car.
The argument goes that mass production will reduce the price of electric cars, but I am a little sceptical about this claim. The problem is that electric cars requires large quantities of scarce metals, most notably copper. A pure electric car requires about
three times as much copper as a comparable internal combustion engine model vehicle.
This is a bit of a problem given that the world is probably headed for a
copper crunch within the next three years, even without accounting for the likelihood of increased copper demand from manufacturers of electric vehicles. So, my suspicion is that increases in raw material costs are likely to keep electric car prices high for quite some time.
Electric bikes and scooters are a different kettle of fish. Have a look at the table below showing the ranked GDP per capita (PPP) of each of the countries mentioned under the 'international' heading in the last Vmoto 'market update' announcement of 4/5/17.
|
Country |
GDP per capita (PPP) |
| 1 |
Switzerland |
59,561 |
| 2 |
Netherlands |
51,049 |
| 3 |
Sweden |
49,836 |
| 4 |
Denmark |
47,985 |
| 5 |
United Kingdom |
42,481 |
| 6 |
France |
42,314 |
| 7 |
Spain |
36,416 |
| 8 |
Greece |
26,669 |
| 9 |
Uruguay |
21,527 |
| 10 |
Nepal |
2,479 |
Note Nepal: definitely the odd one out here. In fact, Nepal is one of the poorest countries in Asia, yet the country rates a mention in almost every Vmoto sales update.
Initially, I assumed the large number of Vmoto scooter sales in Nepal was due to demand from tourists, or perhaps due to a canny business man in that country smuggling scooters across the porous border the country shares with India to avoid red tape.
But apparently no: I asked Charles about this earlier in the year, and it seems my assumptions were wrong, the scooter sales in Nepal are driven by demand from the general population. I wonder how many cars Tesla sell in Nepal?.
While electric cars are a luxury item for the few, if you are selling electric scooters, the world is your oyster. Admittedly, you are going to make less money per unit selling scooter in developing countries like Nepal compared to European countries, but with rising incomes across much of the developing world, the playing field is probably going to even out over time.
(20min delay)