Personally, I am waiting until Tesla's competition gets their act together and starts producing more EVs. Mercedes and Volkswagen are both moving in that direction, for instance. I think in the next 5-10 years there will be plenty of EVs on the market in most countries, and Tesla will no longer stand out simply because they were first.
I drive a Subaru now. If I could get an EV version of my present car with comparable range, I'd buy it today and never look back. They say by 2035 they'll have electric versions of all their major models[1], so I guess... sometime in the next 15 years, for me?
> Personally, I am waiting until Tesla's competition gets their act together and starts producing more EVs.
Market share of new BEVs in Germany, January 2020 to September 2020:
Volkswagen-Audi-Porsche: 33%
Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi: 18%
Hyundai-Kia: 13%
Tesla: 12%
Mercedes: 9%
BMW: 8%
You don't have to wait, the competition is already outproducing and outselling Tesla in Europe. And all of these car companies have new BEV models in the pipeline that are going to further erode Tesla's marketshare, because Tesla has nothing in the pipeline for the European market over the next couple of years.
I'm very much in the same boat. It's one of the things that has always confused me a little about Subaru, since they seem like they've been really well-placed to take advantage of the transition to electric vehicles. A lot of their customer base cares about things like the environment, usually has some degree of disposable income (they're not the cheapest car on the market) and places a high value on areas like reliability and simple functionality. Electric cars already are supposed to require less maintenance than your average ICE vehicle, and the four-cylinder boxer engine/CVT combo isn't exactly known as a hotrod combo either, so it's not as if the need to satisfy their customer base on 0-60mph time anway (for that type of car, ignore the WRX for a moment).
If they made a Crosstrek/Forester-type vehicle with 300-400 miles of all-electric range, kept the ground clearance, roof rack, and usual interiors, I've always imagined that those vehicles would sell like hotcakes. I know I'd be interested in immediately trading up, in a way that I probably won't be otherwise for a long time.
Subaru is slow to move on industry trends. They were some of the last to get USB ports in their cars, Bluetooth, modern power steering (the wheel in my 2013 Impreza is shockingly heavy for a new car), better fuel economy, etc, etc.
They do one thing - they make solidly reliable 4-wheel-drive cars - and they do it quite well. But I've never seen them be the first on any new thing the industry is doing, no matter how good it is.
You're absolutely right. I always thought of Subaru as a niche car maker appealing mostly to outdoorsy types who don't mind getting their hands dirty to do some maintenance on their car. I don't think they really put much effort into their interior aesthetics. Heck, until recently they weren't really making the best looking cars either. I drive a 2016 WRX and it's literally a box on wheels. There is barely any sound proofing, the audio quality is horrid, the interior is as plain as it gets and they're probably 5 years behind everyone else on innovation, but the car is just insanely solid and incredibly easy to maintain.
Honestly, don't wait. These issues are very rare (otherwise you will see a post on HN every day). And even if you have some issues, they will send someone over to your home to fix it.
