1/ By now, everyone knows that $TSLA's real-world driving range is significantly less than their advertised range. How did that happen? I have my own theory. https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/electric-car-range-and-consumption-epa-vs-edmunds.html

2/ Back in the early days of the Model S, ZEV credits were in big demand. More valuable than Bitcoin, you could readily find buyers for something like $5000 apiece.

3/ The Model S had a real world range in the high 200's. And guess what? If they could advertise 300 miles, it would be worth two extra credits in the dozen or so ZEV states. That's $10k more profit per car! What would you do?

4/ That's right, keep making adjustments to the test method until you reach the fabled 300. The state of California really didn't care. It cost them nothing to accept the 300 mile range and award the credits. And looked great to the public.

5/ The state of California was in fact so generous with ZEV credits that they also awarded Tesla an extra credit for fast refueling battery swaps. Again, no taxpayers got hurt in the process.

6/ Back to the EPA range story. Today, ZEV credits are worth much less and California has made revisions to reduce abuse. But once Tesla's adjusted test methods were in place, it was impossible to walk back to real-world numbers.

7/ To do so would appear that Tesla's EV technology took a step backward. And that's something that could not be tolerated at the world's leading technology company.