Almost two decades ago, Elon Musk started his version of electric cars, by taking a super light weight roadster sports car -the Lotus Elise- and turning it into an EV… The car was ideal for the project, and really fun to drive. The EV company went a long way towards producing its own lineup of cars in its own giga factories… Up until Covid-19, Tesla was an imminent threat to traditional car makers, but they all thought that EV was not a viable solution and it would not last as “One swallow does not make a spring”… Well, in this case it did. And during Covid-19, Tesla was the best EV option available to be purchased on-line, it offered OTA support, and was equipped with “Bioweapon Defense Mode” cabin air-filters. This combination made its locked-down customers around the world go crazy with shopping Teslas… Having prepared the required infrastructure in most capitals of the world, with cars in stock and the best timing ever, Tesla became one of the world’s top car manufacturers within a few years. Traditional carmakers reluctant to invest in EV cars and to oppose to the oil status quo, could not ignore the elephant in the room anymore. They saw an opportunity when the pandemic forced them to shut down their production lines, and grabbed it. It was their chance to turn to EV production and claim the market share they had lost. And although they weren’t ready (see the infant-stage specs of first gen EV cars) they decided to produce them anyway…

EV was never meant to completely replace the internal combustion car engines. Nor was it a new technology (among other car manufacturers, Ford did it too in the 90s with a promising EV model in California but buried it despite its good critics and people’s enthusiasm to own it). Batteries are good only for a small percentage of cars, as an alternative. But to replace the entire world car production? Batteries with today’s technology are charging way too slow, and the existing power supply infrastructure cannot produce enough “juice” if all cars become EV in every city of the world. EV Mobility was there only to serve as a hybrid solution or for specific automotive types, like super mini city cars.
The final solution to replace conventional motors, would be a hydrogen/electric motor for example that was not due, for another decade or so. And this is what made Elon so successful: A relatively new carmaker managed to turn around the entire car industry to a direction in which he was the leader and already had the competitive advantages: Experience, infrastructure (i.e. supercharging stations) and a top-selling product line.
So he made traditional car manufacturers trying to catchup, and forced them to spend millions in R&D and production to market an intermediate product that would eventually be replaced by a more effective and environmentally efficient solution, likely a hydrogen – electric fuel cell motor … (like the existing hydrogen Toyota Mirai or the new supercar Hyperion XP-1)

What is Elon investing in these days? Is it still the EV technology and its refinement, or is he preparing for the next mobility technology? Another question is, who will be the next Elon Musk and the new Tesla? There is a lot of noise lately from the other side of the Atlantic about Hyperion’s new exotic super car XP-1. Will this be a turn in the car evolution history? Toyota has been commercially distributing the FCEV Mirai model since 2015, and in 2022 sold around 22,000 units… BMW has partnered with Toyota (since 2013) to co-develop the FCEV systems.
The car industry is rapidly changing no doubt. And today’s kingdoms may easily fall, as recently proved. It seems that it is not a game of power and endurance anymore, but a game of speed and evolution to new, better, truly sustainable technologies. Some new players have been added in the game of thrones, while some others seem to re-claim for the throne. Who is going to be the next automotive king?

Images: Hyperion Inc., Toyota Motor Corp., BMW AG