Competitors

The competition of electric cars can be looked at from multiple levels, and in this case there has been chosen for two levels: full electric cars and hybrid cars. See Image 1 for an overview of the competitors.

Full electric cars

The electric cars have not yet a lot of competition, but manufacturers are busy to develop them. This can be confirmed by the fact that a lot of electric cars are in a test phase or only available by leasing. However, a few cars are already directly for sale, but most of them are small city cars. This market is in the introduction phase of the product life cycle.

Hybrid cars

Hybrid cars have a combination of electric motors and fuel as a powertrain. Many of these models are available for a long time, varying from small town cars till big SUV’s. This market is still growing.

Image 1: Competitors Tesla Model S

In order to see where the Tesla model S fits in the current market, a diagram has been made where all these cars are fitted in (see Image 2). It has two axes: Acceleration and Price. These have been chosen because they are one of the USP's for the Tesla Model S. 

Hybrids are being sold really cheap, like the Honda Jazz. Those kinds of cars also have also a really slow acceleration time. On the other end there is for example also the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid, which is really fast but also very expensive. Electric cars are at the moment all very slow, and are on average slightly more expensive than the cheapest hybrids. 

From the graph is it visible that the Tesla model S fills a gap in an area where there is no competition yet, because of its outstanding acceleration time. This acceleration time combined with the price should be stressed in the advertisement. 

Image 2: Tesla Model S positioning