In US centrist world there is Tesla. Poorly made cars at sky high prices. Ranked worse in reliability then Chrysler. Of course there is not much competition in US against Tesla yet, hopefully that will chance soon. Rivian probably is not it – unless they combine with Ford – one of major stakeholders and produce F-150 EV. Ford is supposed to release something in the next 2 years – we see what is it.

Elon’s whole reason for all his companies are basically to create all the infrastructure, transport etc to set up a colony on Mars. They are just a means to an end. This is one of the reason why I like him. Money is not his goal, money is the means to get to his goal.
Not to mention the guy doesn’t have the word failure in his vocabulary. He has the will to make the way.

@@robpotschka:disqus –> “T will own the car business…” They might, if Elon stops chasing Semi Trucks and Mars colonization. The real “BATTERY MWH” for EV packs is not sold in consumer cars, but rather electric buses — redo the numbers with an all-of-the-above approach and you will see Panasonic (the real supplier of “Tesla” cells) doesn’t make the top 3. They don’t sell to any eBUS guys.

The reality is simply that Tesla had a massive self-induced head start, and they’ve been backed at an “insane” level by Musk’s deep pockets. If any other organization put the same “insane”passion (and finances) behind their own project (like, say, if Jeff Bezos decided to build an EV competitor), they’d already be almost a decade behind, and would have a difficult row to hoe to catch up.

I’m rooting for Tesla (I don’t own stock, but I do own a Model 3), but I’m also rooting for *real* competition. I hope Rivian blows the doors off Tesla with their amazing electric Pickup. I’d love to see LG rock the Li-Ion battery landscape with their own “gigafactory”. That’s how *real* paradigm shifts take hold.

Time will tell.