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Inventory of Tesla EVs. (Photo Courtesy: Tesla)
Why are Competitors in the Car Industry Suddenly Helping Each Other Out?
By: Jessica Lin
Like the battle between Apple and Samsung, shouldn’t there be a competitive attitude towards each other? The electric vehicle industry does not think this way. Since 2016, car industries have teamed up with each other to lower risk within the supply chain. Instead of spending billions to create the same process within every car manufacturer, strategic partnerships are occurring regularly.
The survival of each car company is dependent on each other. If they do not innovate, the chance of surviving the electric car boom is close to zero. Hence, many companies such as Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen have all teamed up together to create a system in which they share technology with each other without having to spend billions of dollars on R&D. For instance, BMW and Daimler announced an 880 million dollars partnership to counter production costs. Honda is putting in 2.75 billion dollars in themselves. Daimler and Nissan are also sharing a front-wheel-drive platform. Technology is the way to the future. Without it, a company’s lifeline might not make it. Every industry in the world right now has turned to technology as the sole method to improve, adapt, and transform their company to the next best thing. Even Volkswagen, one of the industry’s biggest players, went into an agreement with Ford to invest $1 billion in Argo AI.
Each car company is trying to stay as relevant as possible in the ever-changing environment that is our society. Every day, something new is created or a new service is implemented. Competitors such as Uber and Lyft have made it hard for automotive companies to convince customers to buy a car instead of using the rideshare option. Trying to stay relevant in this environment has forced car companies to think outside the box without having to spend billions of dollars on marketing and R&D. So instead of taking on the burden alone to create new technology for new car models, car companies are sharing the burden to stay afloat.
Moreover, companies like Mercedes Benz are utilizing many systems made by Tesla such as the electric motor, batteries, and charger. Even though Tesla was the leading industry company on EVs, they are also learning how to improve their EV systems from other companies such as Daimler’s production process. Every company is working with each other to improve their own EVs to satisfy the demands of customers. Customers are looking for new and innovative cars every day and because of the ever-changing desire for what the future EV car should look like. Car companies need to work together to help improve each other’s processes but also at the same time have a competitive edge towards each other. Even suppliers are working with each other like tech companies to better improve their reproduction process to cut costs and R&D costs.
Indeed self-driving EVs are what we expect the future to look like, only a fraction of cars today are electric vehicles. Traditional cars are still the dominant market, but car companies saw the success of Tesla’s innovative EVs from the beginning, everyone is jumping on the train of electric vehicles. However, to survive, car companies need to innovate and innovation comes at a cost that traditional car companies are not used to. In this society, new services and products come and change the aspect of what is the future. If car companies want to stay relevant, it is now or never to jump on the EV train and help each other out to survive together.
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