marginally-profitable electric car company

_Electric_ is the operative word here. If it were an IC car company then perhaps on a stretch, it wouldn't be stellar.

  propped up by hefty government subsidies

They are competing in an industry (oil/car manufacturing) where the incumbents already get a large chunk of subsidies. So the table is already tilted.

  haven't "created solutions" for them yet

I think on the contrary, in case of Tesla, they have made an electric car practical.