Why my next EV won't be a Tesla

I currently lease a Tesla Y (and my wife owns our Audi etron) and I really like the Y...but when the lease is up in about 2 years I probably will get a Hyundai and not a Tesla. Here are the reasons why (and I'm always open to changing my mind!):

1) Vehicle to Load

I recently covered a guest post where the EV driver powered an air conditioner to stay comfortable after Hurricane Helene with a Kia (owned by Hyundai). It's hard to find a bigger proponent of V2L vs. V2G than me. And so it's disappointing that Tesla is so far behind on this topic. They do allow for "Powershare" on the Cybertruck...but who knows what their plans are for the future on other models...it would be great if they let us know.

2) Ease of Charging

Tesla has been the USA leader for ease of charging experience since their inception. The foresight to build out Superchargers AND Destination chargers...and to do it well while also building an EV car company is an amazing achievement. But since they've started to open up the Supercharger network to other manufacturers, this huge competitive advantage will get whittled away.

And new Hyundai EVs (and other manufacturers) will soon start to roll off the assembly line with native J3400 (aka North American Charging Standard (NACS) aka Tesla style connector). I believe these will only have access to Superchargers V3 and above..but it will be an improvement for many (although the CCS Fast Charging experience has improved considerably, there are still some awful CCS DCFC stretches - see link below in item 4).

From this article in the Atlantic titled "Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla":

"By comparison, Hyundai’s EVs are starting to outclass Tesla’s. Take the Kia EV3. The high-range compact car, which is already on sale in Europe and South Korea, will likely start at about $35,000 when it comes to the U.S. in 2026. At the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, all three Hyundai brands showed off new models, which will each be able to access Tesla’s previously exclusive Supercharger network straight from the factory. In doing so, Hyundai’s brands will sell as many EV models with Tesla’s plug type as Tesla does."

3) Styling

The image above is the Hyundai Ioniq 7. I think it's sharp. But also, I think it's cool to drive a car that not every single other EV driver is driving. It's nice to be a bit unique sometimes, and the Tesla lineup is getting stale. Cybertruck is a weird mix of extremely unique, but also not that cool when there's a lot of them in your geographic area (ie I see at least 1 every time I go get my kids from school) because then it's not so unique.

Other EV manufacturers are coming out with some great looking EVs, and with Tesla's focus on AI/Robotics (mentioned below) how much effort are they putting in to new styling and new models?

4) Made in my state

I covered the new Hyundai manufacturing facility outside Savannah, GA in my last post, but in addition to that, Hyundai's Kia division operates another manufacturing plant making EV's (Kia EV9) in the state in Lagrange!

Also from the Atlantic article:

"Hyundai has a lot riding on a patch of rural Georgia. In October, the South Korean auto giant opened a new electric-vehicle factory west of Savannah at the eye-watering cost of $7.6 billion. It’s the largest economic-development project in the state’s history (one that prompted the Georgia statehouse to pass a resolution recognizing “Hyundai Day”). For now, workers at the so-called Metaplant are building the company’s popular electric SUV, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and soon more EVs will be built there, too. And to power those vehicles, Hyundai is set to open a battery plant at the site, and is spending billions to open another one elsewhere in Georgia."

5) Values

What is a brand? Meaning why do consumers choose one company's product over another. Sure, there's obviously the technical functionality and reliability that gets associated with a brand, but how much do the values espoused by leadership play into a brand? What if leadership continually changes the vision/goals of the company and makes misleading statements (not to mention political affiliation)?

When Tesla was getting started, the word was that the vision was to create electric cars to reduce impact on the climate from burning fossil fuels. But more recently, Musk stated: "If somebody doesn’t believe Tesla is going to solve autonomy, I think they should not be an investor in the company.” Essentially pivoting from an environmental ethos to one of AI / autonomy.

I would love to hear Musk explain, in just a tweet, what the mission statement of Tesla is.

And I've been very vocal about my frustrations with Musk's claims of Tesla's autonomous capabilities (both now and in the near future) vs. my experience with the reality of Tesla's "FSD". I'm sure I'm not the only one who has lost faith in Musk to deliver on a lot of his past and future promises.

Picking my next EV will not necessarily be because I'm passionate about the new company's values, but more that I've been disillusioned with and confused by what Tesla's values even are at this point. But luckily I'll have some amazing options to choose from other EV manufacturers!