Here's how competition in the BEV market is working out.

MikeB4: I am currently assessing EVs to purchase a number of them. If a manufacturer cannot get one of the most visible sign of quality right, that is, shut lines it does not give a great deal of confidence in the underlying quality of the vehicle.

Tesla inherited a whole load of ropey old machines at NUMMI, our cars come from a brand new factory in Shanghai 

Bung: That may brute force body fit but will it really be repairable? Will the replacement bolt in pieces always cover the damage?

They have crash structure bolted in, if the actual castings are damaged the car is a writeoff anyhow so no one should be repairing that

Looks like Tesla got some market share by being early to the game - a standard business technique and it can be hard to undo that advantage.

Tesla seem to have a vision of the future which is heavily centred on autonomous vehicles being a thing. Since most (all?) countries don't even have the introductory regulatory framework for fully autonomous vehicles (class 6) it's too early to tell what will happen.

You would have to think that ten years of experience in AV development will be some kind of advantage if AVs become a thing.

But will AVs become a thing? Maybe AVs are ideally suited to Americans with their soul crushing suburban sprawl.

elpenguino:

Looks like Tesla got some market share by being early to the game - a standard business technique and it can be hard to undo that advantage.

Tesla seem to have a vision of the future which is heavily centred on autonomous vehicles being a thing. Since most (all?) countries don't even have the introductory regulatory framework for fully autonomous vehicles (class 6) it's too early to tell what will happen.

You would have to think that ten years of experience in AV development will be some kind of advantage if AVs become a thing.

But will AVs become a thing? Maybe AVs are ideally suited to Americans with their soul crushing suburban sprawl.

Theres a thread for autonomy take it there

The thread is titled "The future of car manufacturers" Autonomous vehicles are part of the future of car manufacturers. 

RobDickinson:

Theres a thread for autonomy take it there

Why bother having individual threads at all. Sigh. 

MikeB4: Actually autonomous public available transport vehicles could have a significant impact on the private ownership of vehicles especially in urban and suburban areas. With more and more housing in these areas not offering vehicle parking the private ownership becomes increasingly difficult. Autonomous vehicle could have a big future.

If private ownership loses mass then motor vehicle manufacture could have a bleak if not finite future.

Vehicle ownership will move from private to fleet's. (imagine uber style car hail, but 1/3rd the price). Won't kill auto manufacture, but volume will drop massively. Automakers will need to downsize with haste when it happens.

Once fleet car could replace 5+ private car's, so the market will shift to require a much lower number of higher durability car's.

If I was in the market for a new car I guess there's two ways of looking at it. It seems crazy if you have the money and none of the niche requirements for petrol/diesel to not buy an EV. On the other hand, I have friends who are considering uber petrol cars as the manufacturers have one last chance to build crazy petrol cars. The crazy hot hatches, the blisteringly fast euro wagons etc. 

I look it as a petrol head as being a little depressing. Your run of the mill electric car for all intents and purposes is going to launch harder and faster than all but the supercars of yesteryear. I do wonder if it will mean the reduction of the car as a status symbol in some ways. I mean electric engines as far as I know all deliver their power in roughly the same way, so why pay heaps for the equivalent of a 6.0L V12.

At this stage my work cars will stay petrol (I get to choose) due to kilometres I do but will get a hybrid in two years if Toyota bring the decent Corolla wagon instead of the base model. 

Scott3:

 

Vehicle ownership will move from private to fleet's. (imagine uber style car hail, but 1/3rd the price). Won't kill auto manufacture, but volume will drop massively. Automakers will need to downsize with haste when it happens.

 

Once fleet car could replace 5+ private car's, so the market will shift to require a much lower number of higher durability car's.

 

shhh don't tell the rural folk and they have to stop farming and move to town but that might be the way of the future?

Batman:

 

 

 

shhh don't tell the rural folk and they have to stop farming and move to town but that might be the way of the future?

 

Until food production is largely automated and synthetic there will be the need for specialist commercial related vehicles.

mudguard:

 

I look it as a petrol head as being a little depressing. Your run of the mill electric car for all intents and purposes is going to launch harder and faster than all but the supercars of yesteryear. I do wonder if it will mean the reduction of the car as a status symbol in some ways. I mean electric engines as far as I know all deliver their power in roughly the same way, so why pay heaps for the equivalent of a 6.0L V12.

 

At this stage my work cars will stay petrol (I get to choose) due to kilometres I do but will get a hybrid in two years if Toyota bring the decent Corolla wagon instead of the base model. 

 

I'm a petrol head and I hate complexities of petrol cars. A love hate relationship. The stinky smell, the smoky pipe, got to wait for engine to warm up before there is heating, got to work so hard (somehow get the engine to 5000rpm by any means necessary) to get anywhere near the promised power figures, and in doing so get less than 10% of the promised fuel consumption, and if you do it one too many times the whole thing blows up in your face. if you want to minimize it blowing up got to spend so much money feeding it with fresh poisonous oil and hoping the magic liquid will actually keep the super complicated mechanics working nicely.

EVs - none of that problem. the only issue is range (or charging & degradation), weight (inc dead weight with discharge with use and progressive degradation)

If i want noise i can hopefully code a Huracan Performante V10 in my EV if i want to hear it. I can't afford a Performante anyway so i will need to code into an EV.

Audi is making their EVs behave like revving petrol engines so you just need to add the smell if you already have the speakers for the sound ...