For example, VW will predictably do really well in the next 10-15 years as they've invested tons of money into optimizing their manufacturing; they use the same basic modules for a large VW and a small Seat.
Why not go the Apple approach - provide a small number of models that satisfy a pareto-split percentage (80%+ including the more profitable markets) and leave the remaining percentage either to aftermarket partners or competitors?
That's the approach Tesla has taken, focusing primarily on the highest margin portion, and filtering down.
Tesla isn't planning to be a "big player in the automotive industry". They plan on creating new product market, which just so happens to be compatible with the existing infrastructure. The incompatibilities (i.e., no ICE/gas) is a feature.
Usually that's what thing that differentiates >=premium cars from the rest. If you buy a Skoda, you get packages. If you buy an Audi (same conglomerate), you can customize everything as you like.
For the same reason that car manufacturers offer different models for the same product (personal transportation): like the A, C, E, S class (in the case of Mercedes). These classes allow a producer to differentiate between consumers with different spending power. If you offer just one product at one price you can't capture the whole market (ie. you sell too little / too cheap to rich people and can't sell to poor people).
Apple recently started going this way as well with the introduction of the Apple watch. If you look at all the models and options they can cover a very broad price range. Differentiating between the watch sport, the watch and the watch edition. Add to this the different sizes (38MM and 42MM) and the different bands and you get a very nice price continuum between 349$ and 17000$.
Add in the fact that it's not millions of variations (really only a couple dozen now). Tim Cook famously said in some conference a while back that all of what Apple sells can be fit in on a table in front of him. I don't think that guiding vision has really changed.
Furthermore, it's not clear if the Apple watch will be successful. I wouldn't use it as a guideline for a successful product strategy - yet.
And work on more charging stations and battery life. Here at the office the guy with the Tesla is constantly mocked cause he couldn't even make it to the team building event, less than a 3 hr drive away (mainly by the guy who had to borrow his mom's Clio to buy some loudspeakers that didn't fit in his own sports car, but that's a different story ...)
Why on earth you'd spend a hundred grand on a car that can't drive more than a couple hours is beyond me, even if it has a big-ass iPad inside.
I've had my car in Austin for a year and a half now and never once been concerned about power, never once been to a charging station (and never been to a gas station). I would suggest that most people aren't regularly taking giant road trips.
The touch screen is not even that awesome (no tactile response), it's less than 1/100th of what makes the car great to own / drive.
Also, there are many people who take long road trips far more frequently and for whom range is a genuine issue (between my vehicles, I clock about 30k miles a year--mostly pleasure as I live only a mile from my job.) I don't begrudge those who can make an EV work for them, but it won't for me.
Yes, that is true. People will need different ways of commuting based on what their needs are.
> The problem I have with this argument is that is doesn't eliminate the problem, but merely removes it a step.
Also true, but what is the problem? Again, you need different ways of commuting based on what your needs are.
No one suggests taking cars everywhere. Some people like road trips, but many people fly when the distance is too far and their time too short.
Likewise people in New York take the subway, elsewhere people ride their bikes. No one suggests the fatal flaw with those is that you can't take them to the next state over. You just rent a car or take a bus, or do whatever, or, if you really need it, you pay a decent sum of money (in New York, at least) to keep a car in a parking space for when it is needed.
We're already in a no single size fits all situation, so it's not clear what the problem with that continuing is.
After depreciation and gas, might be cheaper to rent a car for them too.
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No, not at all. In the case of cars with ICE the biggest challenge is still mechanical -- mostly related to environmental protection standards. To keep a BMW M5 Euro5 compliant you have to go a _long_ way. If you mean that you use software to design these cars then well, yes, I can agree. But the onboard software is still a very-very small part of the challenge.
(Ask somebody who's actually in the car industry, especially if he's in the higher-end market, like someone from AMG, BMW M, etc.; just the cooling of these things is an art.)
In the case of Tesla, things are slightly different, but not that much. The big thing here is the reliable electric motor, which -- also according to Tesla marketing -- is simple compared to an ICE, but in reality it's a big challenge to manufacture because high-powered electric motors need to be manufactured with incredible precision, otherwise they break quickyl and often.