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0 pointsstcredzero4y ago0 comments

The car companies that have the supply chains, the know-how, and now the motivation to electrify (the key component previously missing), will somehow defer to Tesla to build their platforms.

That takes some doing, as GM is finding out with the Bolt EV catch-fire recall, costing them many 100's of millions. Even if they can source the batteries, and get to a minimum level of quality and dependability, they will probably still be far behind in terms of margins, power density, and efficiency -- for several years at least.

Also FYI, 2 out of 3 luxury manufacturers you mentioned already do that with established auto manufacturers

Indeed. And at this point, Tesla is the most established EV manufacturer.

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BoorishBears4y ago

Lol those brands didn't randomly go to those manufacturers, Maserati is owned by FCA/"Stellantis" and Lamborghini is owned by VAG.

I can't believe people are seriously entertaining the idea that a major auto manufacturer would need Tesla to make cars for them.

At that point what is the manufacturer bringing? Tesla's totally-not-marketing has brought them more cachet than anyone "boring" like Ford or Toyota

stcredzeroOP4y ago

I can't believe people are seriously entertaining the idea that a major auto manufacturer would need Tesla to make cars for them.

The trend I see, is that the more people know about what it takes to mass-manufacture an EV, the more they expect that legacy auto companies are going to turn to another manufacturer for the battery pack and the drivetrain.

At that point what is the manufacturer bringing?

The strength of the brand. It's hard to deny the brand strength of Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Maserati, and Lamborghini. People will pay ridiculous markups to own brands like that. This opens up the margins such companies would need to survive.

Tesla's totally-not-marketing has brought them more cachet than anyone "boring" like Ford or Toyota

Does Tesla have the equivalent cachet of Lamborghini? It's debatable, I think.

BoorishBears4y ago

Luxury car brands are not major auto manufacturers by themselves, they're owned by them.

A Rolls-Royce is a BMW. My M4 had RR chimes in it's hidden configuration settings.

A Lamborghini is (usually these days) an Audi. The Urus is a Q8 and the Huracan is an R8 (or the other way around, hard to keep track at this point)

A Maseratis has an infotainment system out of a Jeep Cherokee and shares transmission bugs with a Chrysler 300

Their brand cachet doesn't matter to this conversation because they're not the ones who control its application. The "boring" parent company will.

And why will the parent company do that for their ultra-luxury brand that's all about image and not their normal cars? They won't.

So the parent company needs to have a reason to go to Tesla.

A skateboard is not just a drivetrain, it's the entire platform.

Manufacturers have just spent millions and billions in R&D to develop modular platforms that can do things like transition from ICE to BEV without feeling like an electrified ICE.

They're going to throw that away? Because their margins on batteries aren't quite as good as Tesla?

Lol if that's the case I think the last thing that helps margins is having someone else provide the whole platform.

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