Why Detroit's EV strategy is stuck in neutral

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/27/tesla-ford-gm-mercedes-evs/

By Adam Lashinsky

August 27, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. EDT

The Washington Post

The world’s biggest carmakers are in disarray over their plans to produce electric vehicles. From Ford to General Motors to Mercedes, one car company after another has announced delays, cancellations and billion-dollar write-downs due to their sputtering EV efforts. These are industrial giants that built their brands on internal-combustion engines, only to see their market values dwarfed by EV market leader Tesla. Now they are being humbled alongside their upstart rival by a perceived lack of consumer interest in their newfangled wares.

Yet the wrong conclusion to draw is the demise of EVs. Instead, what we’re seeing play out is as old as capitalism. A new idea, brilliantly executed by a challenger company that seems to be an overnight success, shakes incumbents to their core. Massive overinvestment, poorly executed, then ensues, leading to hand-wringing, retrenchment and doubts about the market.

If history is any guide, and it almost always is, EVs are here to stay, and the carmakers that get them right will be the ones that survive. The key to understanding where this is going isn’t the losses Detroit is racking up but its pain threshold for enduring more red ink.

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