Given what has been said previously, it is clear that the existence of a charging infrastructure is fundamental for the development of the car market electrical. Tesla plans to become a mass producer of electric vehicles and to do so it is necessary to have facilities for the company to produce enough vehicles and it is necessary for there to be enough charging stations. Tesla is an interesting example and probably a benchmark for electric car manufacturers. Indeed, certain measures have been taken to overcome the main obstacles linked to electric cars. First, it owns a vast network of fast charging stations operating for Tesla cars, called Tesla Supercharger (Tesla motors Inc, nd). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Specifically, these charging stations are meant to charge Tesla models and are intended exclusively for them, but other electric cars can potentially use them as well. This means that Tesla is potentially ready to open its network to other producers and demonstrates that its strategy is forward-looking and that it already plans for its charging system to become the standard for industry networks. Indeed, networks have effects on competition, as the Betamax – VHS affair explains. Tesla knows the importance of networks on competition. In fact, it published its patents so that all other companies could use its technology, which is virtually open source (Solomon, 2014). The company is therefore ready to share its technology and compressors with other manufacturers, as stated by its CEO Elon. » Musk said, but in reality none of them seem interested. The reason is that some manufacturers use different batteries that need to be charged at a lower voltage and some of them need an adapter to use the Tesla network. However, since Tesla's technologies are open source, automakers that are behind in the development of electric vehicles may find it opportune to adopt Tesla's advanced and high-quality technology to offer electric cars for free. This can definitely help Tesla Supercharger technology become the international standard in its industry. However, building a network involves costs and revenues. On the one hand, Tesla is spending a lot of money to build the network of Super Chargers and it is predicted that it will still need $1.9 billion to $7.5 billion to match the convenience of the US gas structure, by building 30,000 new Superchargers in the United States of America alone. America. How can it be sustainable for Tesla to continue to expand its network in order to practically maintain its competitive advantage in the future? Tesla has already chosen to directly build its infrastructure also in foreign regions and is ready to assert its technology as standard. To do this, it can authorize the use of its superchargers, sharing the network and the costs associated with it. Additionally, by increasing the number of users on the network, it will be even more valuable and contribute more to the company's revenue. This network is already widespread in North America, Europe (especially Western), Israel, the United Arab Emirates, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In addition, many new stations are under construction and Tesla is far ahead of other manufacturers orenergy companies. In particular, they are consolidating their network where there already exist stations and are considering building them in Eastern Europe but also in Russia, near Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Unfortunately, the rest of the world is still not served by Tesla Superchargers. They built these stations both in cities and on expressways, so that it was possible to travel long distances by car, even if it was electric. In addition, they have signed agreements with many restaurants, hotels, shopping centers and tourist centers so that owners of a Tesla can be able to recharge it once they arrive at their destination. These charging stations are called “Destination Charging” and taking into account them and the Superchargers, Tesla has a very good network. This represents a competitive advantage for Tesla over its competitors because it can provide greater value to customers. Indeed, at present, a network of fast charging stations is certainly rare, valuable, expensive to imitate and difficult to replace. However, it is important to understand whether or not this is sustainable in the future, allowing Tesla to achieve even higher profits than its competitors. To do this, it is possible to pass a durability test. Three are the main measures to take into account: Difference between the company's product and that of competitors, imitability, improvements. Starting with the first in the list, it is clear that Tesla is considered different among customers, and this is due not only to the specific characteristics of its cars and its brand, but also to the presence of the fast charging network. stations (DeBord, Tesla is about to report results – but no one will talk about its biggest competitive advantage, 2017). Indeed, Tesla's Super Charger network is the only one known in its sector, which means that the vast majority of customers or potential buyers are not aware of any competing network, outside of public networks. Anyone who owns a Tesla will be able to charge their car in a network of conveniently located charging stations only for Tesla cars and will also be able to use public terminals or charge at home. Therefore, Tesla offers its customers many more charging options than its competitors. Second, it is not difficult to imitate Tesla's network technology, given that it is now open source, but it would be difficult and expensive to imitate the diffusion of Tesla's network that is today already remarkable and which is ready to be extended and improved. Even if some competitors, as we'll see below, have their own networks or are planning them, Tesla will still be ahead of them. In fact, it is already planning to improve its network and expand it, whether others are still planning it or do not offer the same advantages, such as fast charging. Finally, Tesla is not only a car manufacturer, but also a high-tech company. It is therefore clear that improving their products is always their goal. Indeed, it is working not only on new models, but also on ways to make its charging technology even faster with the new V3 Super Chargers (Lambert, 2018). So it’s clear that Tesla’s competitive advantage passes the sustainability test. However, to once again analyze Tesla's competitive advantage and check whether it is sustainable or not, another strategic management tool can be useful, the business model canvas. In particular, in some aspects it can be useful to compare it to Tesla's competitors. First of all, the customer segment is made up of environmentally friendly people, generally from theupper middle class. Tesla's value proposition is based on safety, fast charging and the ability to charge a Tesla not only at home, but also in one of the Super Chargers or at a charging station at the destination. Customer relations are based on the Tesla.com website. In fact, by browsing on it, the customer is invited to a test drive and after the purchase, the main interactions between the company and the customer take place through the interface of the cars, which is constantly updated. When it comes to channels, Tesla only uses its own stores, delivering via service centers and mobile service vans. Tesla's main activities are improving its electric and autonomous models and creating new ones, building them around the target customer in automated factories. . Plus, they are always innovating to make their cars require less maintenance and constantly releasing software updates. The company's main resources lie in its engineers and its charging network, whether key partners are locations where the destination charging stations are located. Tesla does not have service partners because it delivers itself. Finally, the cost structure is particularly affected by the development of its new technology, both hardware and software. Additionally, other cost sources are human resources, production, marketing, sales and services. On the other hand, the main sources of revenue come from sales of its cars, the Model S in particular, and pre-sales of the Model 3. , maintenance and sales of wall connectors generate revenue for the company. By analyzing its competitors, the difference between Tesla and them is clear. For example, BMW has very different revenue streams, also including high rental fees and rental fees. Additionally, its customers are performance-oriented and BMW wants to provide the ultimate driving experience. It has a traditional dealer network and its main partners are other automobile manufacturers and IT companies. From this analysis, it is easy to understand the differences between Tesla's business model and that of a traditional manufacturer. Tesla's competitive advantage also lies in factory automation and self-driving cars. It is therefore clear that a lack of charging station network can suppress demand (Todd, Chen and Clogston, 2013) and that Tesla is the only company in the market investing to overcome these problems. The others mainly rely on public charging stations. The Tesla case therefore constitutes a virtuous example. Indeed, its main competitors, like BMW, also make internal combustion engines, regardless of whether Tesla is electric only. It is therefore fundamental for them to guarantee their customers the possibility of recharging their car, otherwise it will be impossible for Tesla to achieve its goal of becoming a mass producer. This strategy will certainly help Tesla achieve its goal of international expansion. Indeed, the company has not focused its activities only on the United States of America but on many regions of the world, including both developed and some developing countries. However, even though Tesla's production facilities have reached the target of 5,000 Model 3s per week, these numbers seem quite low for a mass producer but, after all, this is only the beginning of its transformation from a producer of luxury electric vehicles to a global mass manufacturer. Additionally, Tesla must find a way to make its competitive advantage truly sustainable. As already said, Tesla had the foresight to create its owncharging network, but it is also interesting to consider the position of its main competitors on the same subject. Currently, none of Tesla's competitors are planning to directly invest millions to build their own charging infrastructure (DeBord, Tesla is about to report results — but no one will talk about its biggest competitive advantage , 2017). In Europe, something similar to Tesla's Supercharger network. It's called "Ionity" and it is a joint venture between BMW AG, Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz), Ford Motor Company Inc and Volkswagen AG (including Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche). It plans to build 400 fast charging stations in Europe by 2020, the first 20 of which will be installed in Germany and Norway, near expressways. Ionity wants to become a highly reliable charging network throughout Europe for everyone who owns an electric car, but at the moment it is insignificant compared to Tesla's network. In fact, there are only six Ionity charging stations open across Europe. In addition, it is fundamental to inform customers of the launch of this network, but at the moment it seems absolutely unknown in Europe if Tesla's Superchargers are well known throughout the world and are one of the reasons why the customers prefer to buy a Tesla rather than another electric vehicle (Van Den Steen, 2015). Instead, in the United States of America, there is a company called ElectrifyAmerica, created by Volkswagen AG, which will invest $2 billion over the next ten years to build fast charging stations across the United States. It uses a technology called "Combined Charging System" which is proposed as an international standard against Tesla's Super Chargers. Although many of them are planned across the country, only a few of them are already operating, making it impossible to travel by electric car from the West Coast to the East Coast or vice versa. In reality, only 12 stations operate across the United States (Electrify America Inc, 2018). The difference between Tesla's extended network and Electrify America's is therefore clear. Furthermore, also in Japan there is another competitor that is building charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. It’s called “CHAdeMO,” which stands for “Charge the Move.” It is a Japanese joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company, Nissan Motor Company Ltd, Mitsubishi Group, Subaru Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation (CHAdeMO, 2018). Their technology is offered as standard, in competition with that of Tesla and Volkswagen. CHAdeMO has built a very extensive network in Japan, building even more charging stations than Tesla (considering both Super Chargers and Destination Chargers). In addition, it is present in many other Asian countries and it has a good distribution in Europe, comparable and overlapping with Tesla's Super Chargers, and it is present in North, Central and South America, with good distribution in the United States, even if it is less developed than Tesla's network. Additionally, CHAdeMO also has a good presence in Oceania, especially New Zealand, and there are also a few charging stations in Africa. Therefore, given its current distribution, only CHAdeMO appears to truly compete with Tesla's charging network. However, there is an important difference between these two solutions. Superchargers are designed to charge only cars made by Tesla and are very fast, while all other charging stations are designed to charge many different cars from different manufacturers and are less fast. Either way, this exclusivity can add value to Tesla products and all.