And as always it will also be a battle for the engineers. I'm German and have only seen a few German companies really fight for engineering power. Only example I can think of is Zalando. The reason probably is that the average engineer is better educated than in many other countries, maybe better than in the US. But in exchange we don't have as much exceptional talent. This influences hiring preferences a lot, since a team of (high) average people can outperform a rockstar and can still be cheaper.

But here it doesn't apply, since it's a vastly new technology on all levels of production. You really need the rockstars since they will be the one building the new technologies. So when the big car companies realize what they need to do all the great engineers who can do it will already work for Tesla.

So I have to agree. The battle hasn't really begun yet, but the war already seems over.