As snow pummeled Colorado early on Sunday, I found myself helping a Tesla SUV get unstuck from the middle of the road. It took about 20 minutes and a lot of shoveling, but eventually, we were able to get the car of the future on its way.
It made me think about the purpose of the Tesla SUV. In Colorado, the point of a Sport Utility Vehicle is snow navigation. When the Tesla stalled, I was clearing a path around my compact Toyota Corolla so that I could eventually get out. I knew I was stuck.
But an SUV?
No way. Those things should have been fine at that moment. I even saw one effortlessly maneuver down the street. SUVs have four-wheel drive and can glide above the snow.
The Tesla was stuck on top of the snow. After watching this car sputter into the curb like it was a Honda Civic, I had my doubts that a Tesla could go off-road or through the Rocky Mountains. As I told the driver, the problem was leverage. The Tesla was too low to the ground.
That’s when he told me that he was from Texas and had never seen this much snow in his life. Imagine the salesperson in Texas telling this guy, “This thing will do everything you need. You shouldn’t have any problems.”
Of course, SUV means something different in different places. What works in Texas doesn’t work in Colorado.
Last year, I drove a rental car back from Texas. It was chilly that week, and the windshield wiper fluid stopped working. When I returned the rental car in Colorado, I told the attendant about the problem.
“Oh, you got this from Austin? They use water in the windshield wiper fluid down there. They never expect it to freeze.”
Imagine how that worked during their big freeze this year?
Similarly, imagine Elon Musk, from South Africa, in the design meetings for a Tesla SUV. I’m sure the purpose of this design was so the car would look cool and handle the road better. While that thinking often holds true, it significantly decreased its value as an SUV during a Colorado snowstorm.