To my knowledge, Tesla Motors were one of the first electric vehicle sellers for the ‘general’ public.
For context, the Model S debuted in 2012, and to this day, it still seems to be a very popular car.
How come other car manufactures cannot (or have taken many years) to come close to the performance and popularity of the Tesla models? Is it that hard to create 500km+ ranged electric vehicles? Tesla did it 10+ years ago, why has the rest not?
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As the other commenter mentions, for Tesla, there was no concept of product cannibalization. The major manufacturers of the day were going to sell cars regardless. From the existing manufacturer’s standpoint, selling 5 million ICE versus 4.9million ICE and 100K EVs was not compelling. They saw it as taking from the left pocket and putting it into the right pocket.
With that viewpoint, they had no incentive to invest billions on “risky” technology. And this technology threatened to displace their decades experience and investment in things like engines.
While a bit superficial, the car makers were “old school” – Mid-West to East Coast types – which means they thought of electronics and software as supplemental. Tesla was, at the time, very much a “tech born”, Silicon Valley type company.
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