Ford and GM could have killed Tesla
Ford's got a little bit of a management problem, on top of a long-term visionary problem too, according to Bill Ford. The main issue? Electric vehicles. More specifically, electric vehicles that Bill Ford had proposed for Ford to begin manufacturing well before Tesla ever became a big name.
GM also had a similar tale to tell with their GM EV1, which was distributed from 1996 to 1999, well before Tesla even existed. Yet, GM had concluded that electric cars were an unprofitable niche at the time, never to look back, despite the positive feedback they had received for the EV1.
It looks like both firms played themselves though. Tesla has been causing a riot, to say the least. Now, the future of Tesla? That's quite another matter as we're all familiar with.
At any rate, what do you all think of Ford and GM's missed opportunity?
Was GM's EV1 discontinuation made in great error? From the way Tesla was valued and perceived, it seems that even if they were not incredibly profitable, there would have been a massive rally in support of GM for the past almost two decades. How would that have been able to help GM?
Does Ford and GM still have a shot at stealing the show in the electric vehicle market? They're still big automobile players with a lot of trust placed behind them by consumers. Is the state of both companies stable enough to easily take out Tesla's competition by putting out their own electric vehicles?
Share any of your thoughts.
Fucking losers.
Any thoughts on Ford or GM acquiring one of the smaller electric car companies?
In the early days Tesla was not even that great. What the company has done quite successfully is build a brand reputation as not just as a thought leader and engineering innovator (which both Ford and GM are as well) but also as a luxury brand.
You can't compete with Tesla using an ordinary mass market product that doesn't have the brand cachet and public image they do.
Incidentally this is also the same problem which has plagued the revitalization of Lincoln and Cadillac over the past 30 years or so as they have tried to compete with foreign luxury brands.
For anyone to compete with Tesla it needs to be a mid priced offering that is stylish and luxurious enough to get high net worth clients in the door first. I don't know if American brands are still capable of that but GM has been trying awfully hard with the Escalade and CT6, Ford is just starting a push of their own with redone Continental and Navigator.
It may be 5 more years until we see a true competitor at that rate. For now I would say Audi/BMW/Mercedes are the brands to pay attention due to their mid market offerings. Their smaller cars are the bulk of revenues in most years. (Average 50%+ in most years)
That doesn't bode well for anyone, much less GM and Ford, if the Model 3 replicates the success of an A4/3-series/C-Class style car.
Cadillac makes decent vehicles. I agree that they aren't German-level, but they're way beyond what you would typically think of as an American luxury car.
On the other hand, I couldn't tell you what Lincoln makes or who they even target. Retirees?
The thing that always gets me about American luxury vehicles is that for the longest time, they were just rebadged versions of their non-luxury counterparts. This is of course changing, but for decades, there was barely a difference between the Escalade and the Suburban. I am still not a fan of Cadillac's design, but the new Lincoln Continental looks very good.
Who knows what they are thinking? It isn't as if there is any brand equity left at this point. Lincoln has had one of the worst model lineups in the industry for the better part of a decade.
The last competitive attempt at a mass market release was 2002-2005 when they had the Navigator and LS in showrooms at the same time. Their main consumer base isn't even retail (unless you believe Ford) their sales have been heavily dependent on fleet sales and commercial accounts. That is eons in the automotive landscape, almost three full product cycles behind the competition on average.
The real shame here is that Ford has been killing it by most measures with the rest of their offerings. Lincoln needs to throw in the towel and become a commercial brand already. Maybe Ford can launch the Navigator as it's own marque similar to what FCA has done with the Ram division. Their strongest retail presence is in trucks anyway and the F-series pickups can regularly be optioned out near Escalade prices already.
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