As it turns out, producing a quality product takes a long time. Tesla got to market early by not producing a quality product, but I assumed they would raise the quality bar after they got mass adoption.
> Tesla got to market early by not producing a quality product
I'd argue Tesla min/maxed aspects of their product that gave them a initial strong lead in product space. Quintessentially performance/distance/charger-availability, but also some aspects of their tech really stood out like the touchscreen performance and mobile integration (relative to what other cars had in the mid 2010s.
IMO that initial lead has diminished. Other brands are catching up and do better in terms of some aspects of quality control and now reputation. If this trend continues I think we could see Tesla losing in most metrics, although we still probably have a good chunk of time until that happens.
If I had to buy an electric car today Tesla would still be one of the first cars I researched. Maybe Tesla would win. But in a few years I wholly expect another brand would win out.
That is a little harsh, according to that recent Consumer Reports study Tesla is middle of the pack on reliability. At least according to Ars' take on the data, they build a quite good powertrain it is the rest of the car they haven't gotten good at yet.
