The automotive industry as a whole is undergoing huge change as the move away from traditional ICE vehicles and the move toward electric vehicles is only speeding up as better options become available and as technology continues to push these vehicles forward too – perhaps the most important thing about this change is how easy it is for manufacturers to adopt change when it comes to EV’s too, given adjustments can be made from a software push rather than a hardware one, it allows for a lot more flexibility in what’s available or even what’s possible for newer vehicles too. The latest news to hit the EV market isn’t from something happening with the cars themselves, however, but in purchasing options.
(Image from theverge.com)
It has been well known for quite some time that Elon Musk is willing to take some risk, and a few months ago when he announced that Tesla would be investing $1.5 billion into bitcoin it did take some by surprise – but given crypto is expanding in many different markets from gaming choices at Max for example right through to other day to day usage, it wasn’t all that surprising. More recently, however, at the end of March this year, it was announced that there would in the future be an option to purchase an EV from Tesla through bitcoin, being the first of the manufacturers to accept crypto as a form of payment in this way.
It signals a huge change, but also raises a lot of questions too given the nature of crypto – as volatile as it is, the current prices are extremely high with the price sitting at $58,884 at the time of writing this, hitting an all time high surpassing $60,000 back in March too which certainly fits the pricing of the cars, but looking back to the start of the year, back in January for example, where the price was as low as $30,000 at one point, it does beg the question of what would happen if you bought the car on a day where the price was extremely high, but not yet taking ownership because of lead times and such, but the next day the price plummets? Surely a problem that will need to be solved or addressed in the future, as the opposite could certainly be true too leaving some feeling they overpaid by a huge margin in the span of a day.
It’s unlikely other manufacturers will follow any time soon, and many will look closely to the first batch of Tesla’s sold through crypto, but it’s an interest proposition and a sign of the times as change continues to happen – ultimately it could all be a disaster and have others laughing at the proposition that something like bitcoin could be used to buy a car, but crypto as a whole has only continued to surprise, and ultimately who knows what the future could have in store for the decentralized currencies.