It has been a long time (decades if not longer) - to wait for established and capable automakers to make their best possible effort to make, widely-distribute, sell and support BEVs to their customers. There has been a lot of foot-dragging, commiserating, resentment toward the main upstart, etc. Here in the US, the wait goes on - For one key example, to this day, Ford still has not started widely delivering a single good long-range BEV model (though hopefully the wait will only be a few more quarters). Virtually all of the competition under $50k has a significant asterisk next to it (not widely available, not competitive for the MSRP, significant battery depreciation questions in some regions, etc.) other than the Model 3.
In the history of business, how often has it been the case that producers have struggled so mightily to hang on to an old way of doing things, .... to the point of turning away so much business? Maybe Clayton Christensen (who recently passed away) covered this in his Innovator's Dilemma theorizations, but I haven't yet had the chance to read. In the history of business, how often has it been the case that one particular upstart is able to overcome massive barriers to entry, with the right product at the right time, and to so significantly bring a somewhat complacent or oligarchic industry of incumbents to focus more on innovation, a new technology, and ultimately acknowledging that some customers were and are not at all satisfied with the old products?
I don't know the answers, but I'm just putting the idea out there that this seems to me to be an unusual moment.
In the history of business, how often has it been the case that producers have struggled so mightily to hang on to an old way of doing things, .... to the point of turning away so much business? Maybe Clayton Christensen (who recently passed away) covered this in his Innovator's Dilemma theorizations, but I haven't yet had the chance to read. In the history of business, how often has it been the case that one particular upstart is able to overcome massive barriers to entry, with the right product at the right time, and to so significantly bring a somewhat complacent or oligarchic industry of incumbents to focus more on innovation, a new technology, and ultimately acknowledging that some customers were and are not at all satisfied with the old products?
I don't know the answers, but I'm just putting the idea out there that this seems to me to be an unusual moment.