Leaving the gas guzzlers

For the towering intellects at the cutting edge of The Donald’s MAGA movement, owning an electric vehicle is a sure sign that you’re mere steps away from wanting to plunge the land of the free into some sort of Scandinavian socialist abyss. The list of unalienable rights starts with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but it’s surely only a historical accident that prevented the founding fathers from sticking in the right to shovel fossil fuels into a monster truck with plenty of room for your collection of assault rifles.

In the rest of the world, the future is clearly electric, with Norway leading the way thanks to generous tax incentives that mean about 75% of new car sales are of electric vehicles. In their quest to find the next Tesla, investors are dishing out blistering valuations to companies that in some cases haven’t even produced a single working vehicle, but the current Tesla is doing a tidy job of making the most of its first mover advantage and the lessons it has learnt along the way.

Despite China’s draconian

Covid elimination strategy shutting down production at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory at the end of the quarter, the company delivered 310,048 cars in the first three months of the year, about 68% more than it delivered in the period in 2021. This is despite widespread supply and logistics challenges that resulted in General Motors’ US sales dropping by 20%.

Tesla opened its Berlin Gigafactory in March and is opening another in Austin, Texas, this month, so production numbers should continue to entrench its advantage.