The issue for the big car makers is that their differentiation is in the ICE drive chain... Making that thing to any sort of modern standard is very difficult, making millions of them at the right price is really difficult.
Electric motors in the wheels - not so much.
So, the established players have to find reasons why consumers will buy their implementation of a generic technology. The potential ones are specialisms, brand & service. Service is difficult because EV's don't need much. My 4 year old tesla has had 1 tyre repaired and a lot of washer fluid poured in the front. Specialisms will include things like bullet proofing, radical looks... Brand will be available to Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Porsche, and few others but these will be small scale - although overall they will add up to be somewhat significant. But companies like Ford, GM, VW, Mercedes, Renault, Toyota and Honda are really screwed. Even Tesla! Personal mobility is going to be commoditized, margins are going to go, costs are going to have to be cut radically
And that's just moving the car forward. There's still a suspension, geometry of the wheels and suspension, balancing torque on front and rear wheels, weight distribution, steering, and more that all influences how a car feels as it drives.
Pretty much all of these things can influence a car's performance and how one perceives the car. A better quality inverter or better logic driving it can lead to better performance or efficiency. Tuning the windings and rotor magnet designs can change efficiency and torque curves at high speeds. Obviously, gear ratios can change things as well.
> Electric motors in the wheels - not so much.
Very few EV cars actually put the motors in the wheels. Tons of EVs only have a single motor in them, the extreme majority have 1-2.
You have can the same batteries (or engines) in a car and get widely different driving dynamics. How does it put power down to the wheels?
EVs are fantastic 0-60 machines in a straight line but the luxury brands you listed care about more than that (including status, of course). How does it corner? What happens when I floor the accelerator at 70mph? Does the car feel like a wild animal you're taming or a machine that feels like an extension of your body?
Then you get to the other differentiators of interior design, extra tech capability, NVH management, etc. I'm excited for those areas to see some more useful innovation once 0-60 times stop being interesting.
I think vehicles like the Prius, Leaf, etc are for the same audience as the corolla, altima, etc buyer. The playground for those who care about a particular 10% of their driving/badge experience will always exist regardless of what powers the vehicle
Also the magic of drivechains is in the magic. Electrical connections and software are much much easier to deliver than gears and other precision manufactured physical components. Replication of software over 1000000's of instances is trivial. Replication of a precise physical component is hard.
That's not what I've seen in the numerous reviews I've read. Plenty of others get reviews similar to those of Tesla both from reviewers and their owners.
Tesla has got by far the best charging network, and their drivetrain is top notch, but the car shaped object they put that drivetrain in is not great. The old car makers seem to be learning how to make good electric drivetrains faster than Tesla is learning to make the rest of the car.
> at a huge loss per car.
Aren't you jumping the gun a bit? It took Tesla 12 years from the time they started actually shipping cars to the time they started having profitable years.