They’re taking credit for their own success? I don’t know how you can construe that to be the industry overall.
replyYou mean Toyota and Tesla’s success? Let’s be real - the Prius and then Model S kickstarted the EV revolution.
replyIf you read the history you’ll see the appropriate word is “restarted” the EV revolution. It was on and off again in a slow march to the point that allowed Tesla to exist. I’m not diminishing the role Tesla played, but it has to be taken in context. They stood on shoulders.
replyAn over 125 year, often abandoned, stuttering march filled with stories of invisible battles by the entrenched to keep the status quo.
replyI think looking at every carmaker’s lineup should make it obvious that they don’t give a crap what powers a car, they are just trying to sell what’s popular. EVs were trendy for a couple years and a margin-subsidizing $7000 was available so everybody enthusiastically brought out EVs. Now they’re less popular so they’re all pulling back. Arguably even Tesla is doing so, given that Musk has intimidated that he didn’t really think Tesla was going to keep selling cars forever.
replyWhen the demand is sufficient, the cars will be sold in numbers to match it. Demand will increase as it becomes practical to own an EV for more people. This mainly has to do with charging infrastructure at every level, which is capital intensive for both individuals and governments.
Do you suggest we ignore or include in this history the original contributions of the first electric cars from all the way back in the single digits of the 1900s?
replyThere was a long time between those cars and the modern electric car where the only thing electric was "golf carts" (not general purpose cars), or homemade conversions. The EV1 was the first commercial car in the memory of most people alive today. The 1900s ones were fun/interesting historical things, but not practical.
replyThose were important too, but the ev1 started that modern ev.
replyIt's not a success if you quit the race at the finish line, even if you were in the lead.
replyRight before that in the paragraph:
reply> The EV1 introduced technologies that remain foundational to modern EVs