Identify the main competitors of the company chosen to work with your team, in different ways:
1. Applying the three intuitive conditions that determine which products tend to be close substitutes.
2. Using the NACE classification code, together with a geographic criteria (if it makes some sense). To do so, help yourself with the SABI database, available for all university users.
Compare the results you get in 1. and 2., and make a definitive personal proposal about who the company's competitors are.
Regarding the first way of identifying the competitors of Tesla, firstly we have to mention the three intuitive conditions that determine which products tend to be close substitutes. These are:
· They have the same or similar product performance characteristics: This describes what the products of Tesla does for consumers.
· They have the same or similar occasions for use: A product’s occasion for use describes when, where and how it is used.
· They are sold in the same geographic market.
As we can see, Tesla sells not only electric cars to its customers, but also this Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV). This means that the competitors have to be companies that sell these same or similar products, these products have to have similar occasions for use and they have to be sold in the same geographic market.
At first sight, we have to discover how the market of electric cars is distributed among the different competitors. At this point, let us take a look to this graph:
As we can see it, there are different models of electric cars that were sold in October in 2019. This is not directly related to the competitors, but this will give us a clue of which of the companies that sold these cars may be the competitors of Tesla. We can see different brands, such as Nissan, BMW, Toyota, Saic, etc. The next step is analyzing if these brands offer to their customers same or similar products as Tesla, these products have to have similar occasions for use and they sell in the same geographic market. In this case, we are focusing only on the cars’ sales, nor on the batteries. However, we will take into consideration not only electric cars, but also no-electric ones. Regarding the geographic market, it does not seem as a big problem, although it is true that some of the companies sell more in a specific country or place, most of them are international companies that sell all over the world. With the official websites of each company, we can fill this table.
|
Brand/Company
|
Electric
|
Models
|
|
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Nio
|
YES
|
ES8, ES6, EC6 and EP9
|
|
|
Volkswagen
|
Yes
|
ID.3, ID.R, E-UP
Audi: e-tron
Bugatti: -
Lamborghini: Terzo Millennio
|
Porsche: Taycan
Seat: EL-BORN
Skoda: Citigo EIV
|
|
BYD
|
YES
|
E3
|
|
|
Citroen
|
YES
|
SUV C5, Berlingo, E Berlingo, C-Zero
|
|
|
Ford
|
YES
|
Mustang Mach-E
|
|
|
General Motors
|
YES
|
Chevrolet: Bolt EV 2020
Cadillac: -
Opel: Opel Corsa E100kw
|
|
|
Honda
|
YES
|
Honda e
|
|
|
Nissan
|
YES
|
Renault: Zoe
|
|
|
Tata Motors
|
YES
|
Jaguar-Land Rover: I-Pace
|
|
|
Toyota
|
YES
|
Prius
|
|
|
Peugeot
|
YES
|
E2008
|
|
|
Hyundai
|
YES
|
i10, i20, i30, i30 Fastback N, IONIQ EV, KONA
|
|
|
BMW
|
YES
|
I3 and I3s
Mini: Mini Cooper SE and Mini Cooper S
|
|
|
Fiat
|
YES
|
500 la prima, 500, 500C
|
|
|
Mazda
|
YES
|
Mazda MX-30
|
|
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
YES
|
EQC, EQV
|
|
|
Mitshubishi
|
YES
|
Outlander Phev
|
|
|
Nissan
|
YES
|
Leaf, E-NV200, E-NV200 EVALIA
|
|
|
Subaru
|
YES
|
XV, Outback, Forester, Levorg, Impreza, Subaru BRZ
|
|
|
Kia
|
YES
|
Eniro
|
|
|
Volvo
|
Only hybrids
|
XC90T8, S90T8, XC60T8, V90T8
|
|
Regarding the second way of identifying the competitors of Tesla using the NACE classification code, TESLA has the code no. 4511, related to sales of cars and light motor vehicles. If we consider the list of companies that appear in SABI with this same code, we can see that there are 10.546 companies. That is a lot of competitors. These are the first 10 that appear in the database:
If we continue looking in the list, we see that Tesla is in the 362nd position. As we can see, all these companies are in Spain and so is Tesla, because in this database only shows companies in Spain (branch offices).
Before doing an analysis of which of the final competitors we have discovered that compete in the same market as Tesla, we should mention some facts about Tesla.
Electric cars of Tesla are not common cars, they are located in a high range of the market because of their price and their concrete quality and characteristics. This means that the electric cars of the most “expensive” brands are likely to be the competitors of Tesla, nor the brands that offer to the customers an electric car that is more “affordable” to them or that it is not located in a high range of the market but in a lower one. Tesla has a very important competitive advantage and this one is sharing high value and quality in its cars.
With all the information above, at first sight we can see that the main competitors of Tesla are BMW, Mercedes Benz, Renault, Volswagen, Kia and Hyundai. However, the information obtained on Sabi just involves the companies in Spain. This means that other true competitors of Tesla may not appear here and may be even more important than some others that appear in the list.
Nio and BYD are also real competitors of Tesla[1], but this is not well shown in Spain. Nio manufactures premium electric vehicles for the international market. Furthermore, the company gains market with its exceptionally low prices. BYD is one of the world’s fastest-growing auto companies and it is a dangerous competitor in China. These both do not appear in the first places of SABI database, but they are really important competitors for Tesla as facts say.
Volkswagen is a clear competitor. We can see that thanks to the data base but also with the numerous brands that this company presents and the huge difference between them in order to offer different electric cars to different kinds of customers. It is a German company that sells car over the whole world in different kind of prices and ranges. Furthermore, we have to emphasize the specific brands of this company that are located in a high range of the market, just as Tesla is. These are Lamborghini, Porsche or Audi. They offer luxury cars with very high prices. Now that they offer the electric model, the danger is created for Tesla. In this same line, the model I-Pace of Jaguar-Land Rover from Tata Motors can offer also these same expensive and with quality cars.
If we take into consideration the variety or number of electric cars models, we have to mention as potential competitors both, Subaru and Hyundai. As we see, they are the companies that most electric cars offer to the customers. The more models of electric cars a company offers, the more competitive become to Tesla.
Nissan is not that far from this danger for Tesla, because it offers also a lot of models. There is a huge and shown competition between these two brands. There are on the Internet lots of comparisons between their cars and which one deserves better. For instance, https://qz.com/1703260/teslas-model-3-may-never-catch-up-to-the-nissan-leaf/ this article shows that although Tesla dominates the electric cars sales in US, one model of Nissan is doing the same but around the world. This is clear, Nissan is a huge competitor of Tesla.
As we can see, there some clear competitors of Tesla, which can be Nissan, Hyundai, Nio, BYD or Volkswagen. However, we must not keep an eye only in the obvious and most clear ones, but to stay in contact with the activities and movements of the others, because currently you never know if a company is going to enter in this niche of electric cars in order to gain customers that are more likely to buy these electric ones.
Excellent Patricia!
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