Tesla may or may not survive, but in some ways tesla vs gasoline auto manufacturers is similar to the web vs Microsoft. Car dealers make most of their money on maintenance after the sale, and electric vehicles (not just Tesla's cars but all of them) need a lot less maintenance than gas cars. My car in point, 35,000 miles drive, 3.5 years old, all I have done is get new tires. I didn't even take it in for annual maintenance, but I will do that before my non-drivetrain warranty runs out.

This is a big disincentive for bmw, etc (ice makers), in kind of the way that the web was a challenge to windows dominance - if microsoft supported the web too well in a standards compliance way, it would hurt their future prospects. There wouldn't be a viable ev market with customer pressure without tesla.