Every car nowadays has a lot of software. So it is not like other manufacturers lack that competence. Tesla started from scratch and does not depend on older technologies; any challenge that could be solved by software is addressed with a software solution.
The control of the electric motor and the management of the battery pack demands for even more software. From that perspective, Tesla is definitely having an edge. Who was quick enough to recognise that trend? Well Google and Apple sense their core competence may be on the rise in the auto industry.
Automotive executives are taking seriously the prospect that Apple Inc. and Google Inc. will emerge as competitors even as they consider partnering with the two.
“If these two companies intend to solely produce electric vehicles, it could go fast,” Volkswagen AG Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn said at the Geneva International Motor Show. “We are also very interested in the technologies of Google and Apple, and I think that we, as the Volkswagen company, can bring together the digital and mobile world.”
Apple has been working on an electric auto and is pushing to begin production as early as 2020, people with knowledge of the matter said last month. Google has stated that it aims to have a self-driving car on the road within five years.
New competitors such as Tesla and Apple will kick the traditional cars to the curb in every way. More will enter as it becomes obvious to corporations outside of the automotive industry that a massive disruption is killing the traditional car companies and that they are incapable of responding to it. So traditional electronic and electric motor companies will start wrapping cars around their expertise.
Take BMWs strategy for example, it is exactly as pointed out above. Their two existing cars, the i8 and the i3 are both inferior to the Tesla in most ways, both require gas engines to get more than a rather pitiful distance and their strategy of electric motor components in their entire range by 2025 still has no plans for real electric cars that could compete with Tesla.
Tesla Motors Inc.’s success in creating a start-up car company has also shown that the traditional barriers of entry into the auto industry aren’t as difficult to overcome as some thought. Tesla and General Motors Co. are both currently in heavy completion. Their 2017 release of electric vehicles that can go more than 200 miles on a single charge and cost less than $40,000
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