15 years ago, sure. But EVs are mature tech at this point. Nissan has been pumping them out at volume for nearly a decade now. Every other manufacturer now has at least one or two models in development or coming to market. The only differentiating factor is the ability to produce high quality batteries in massive volume.
This is why Nissan was so successful with the Leaf. They had their own battery production facilities in place to provide the volume needed. So far Tesla has been the only other manufacturer with a similar capability. It's also why the Europeans are so far behind the Japanese, Koreans, and the US in EV sales. None of them have their own battery production capacity, and are forced to buy from Panasonic or LG Chem.
Software. The differentiating factor is software. Batteries will soon commoditize. What will make cars unique is how effortless they are to interface with, and things like suspension tweaks in over the air updates. Much like the transition from N64 cartridges to DLC, they dont need to sell a finished product any longer, youre buying into an update stream. Buy from a vendor you trust to keep iterating in a way you like (increased features or increased stability.)
Nissan is a automobile company 80 years of history. That is hardly "anyone".
My point is that it's not rocket science or cutting edge tech. The processes are well known and defined, it's just a matter of investing the capital and putting them in place.
ICE manufacturers make a platform and use it for years, sometimes decades, with only relatively minor tweaks. The hard part as I understand it is literally everything else about manufacture, something which will be broadly shared with EVs.
Yes, those engineers are busy dealing with the complexity I just mentioned.
It took Tesla 5 years to essentially just swap the powertrain + rebadge a Lotus Elise, another 5 and millions in investment before their first in house design.