It is indeed a no-brainer. The Tesla wins hands down.
I've owned many very good German cars for the last 30 years and loved them, but my Model Y makes them all seem quaint and obsolete.
--Electric cars don't need dealers. I want to be able to buy a car online without spending an hour kicking gravel and haggling with some commissioned salesperson over the price.
--Electric cars don't need as much service as ICE cars, and it doesn't need to be done at a dealer's high-profit service bay. When my Tesla needed its rear seat coat hook replaced, a technician drove to my house and replaced it. For free.
--Electric cars need very good batteries. Tesla has a 10-year, several-billion dollar lead over every other car manufacturer on battery technology. Everybody else is playing catch-up. Ditto for motors and single-piece castings.
--Electric cars need very good UI software. The Germans make the second-worst automotive UI software of anybody (only the Japanese do an even worse job). Tesla's UI has elements I don't like, but every other car's software experience is so bad it's not even worthy of criticism.
Mercedes, Porsche, and Audi are all offering electric cars with specs inferior to Tesla at much higher prices. This will be unsustainable after they stop coasting on their reputations and the supply of German car snobs who refuse to try a Tesla dries up.
I'm sure the Germans will eventually catch up; Mercedes invented the ICE car after all. But Tesla invented the modern electric car and it's a whole different beast.
It’s not snobbery, as a luxury car a Tesla is unimpressive. The styling and interior quality is comparable to a Mazda, not a Mercedes. I’m not a fan of the giant tablet for controls unless the car genuinely drives itself, even a generation old BMW’s iDrive 6 paired with carplay is preferable for me. They’re really different categories of product, IMO a Chevy Bolt is closer in spirit to a model 3 than a 3 series is.
I've owned many very good German cars for the last 30 years and loved them, but my Model Y makes them all seem quaint and obsolete.
--Electric cars don't need dealers. I want to be able to buy a car online without spending an hour kicking gravel and haggling with some commissioned salesperson over the price.
--Electric cars don't need as much service as ICE cars, and it doesn't need to be done at a dealer's high-profit service bay. When my Tesla needed its rear seat coat hook replaced, a technician drove to my house and replaced it. For free.
--Electric cars need very good batteries. Tesla has a 10-year, several-billion dollar lead over every other car manufacturer on battery technology. Everybody else is playing catch-up. Ditto for motors and single-piece castings.
--Electric cars need very good UI software. The Germans make the second-worst automotive UI software of anybody (only the Japanese do an even worse job). Tesla's UI has elements I don't like, but every other car's software experience is so bad it's not even worthy of criticism.
Mercedes, Porsche, and Audi are all offering electric cars with specs inferior to Tesla at much higher prices. This will be unsustainable after they stop coasting on their reputations and the supply of German car snobs who refuse to try a Tesla dries up.
I'm sure the Germans will eventually catch up; Mercedes invented the ICE car after all. But Tesla invented the modern electric car and it's a whole different beast.