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Comment by xutopia | Hacker News Reader

I don't think people realize just how much Musk is laughing at all this. He gave away many electric car patents because he knew he would profit from it so long as he has the best battery factory in the world. As it stands Tesla owns the building, the factory and rents some of it out to Panasonic.

Unless Mercedes finds a cheaper battery elsewhere they're going to be paying Tesla for these.

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> they're going to be paying Tesla for these

Consumers are going to be paying for these, no matter the supplier. I don't see why Daimler wouldn't be buying components from Tesla, _if Tesla can supply them_. So far the "Gigafactory" is just not big enough for Mercedes (2,200,000 vehicles/year).

https://www.daimler.com/company/business-units/mercedes-benz...

China has over half the marketshare for lithium-ion battery production and that is expected to grow.

Tesla might be a single large producer but it is a fraction of the overall world production. Is he even planning to have that much excess capacity after powerwall/teslas?

While I've digested with some heavy skepticism, I always was lead to believe it was for more altruistic reasons. Future profit was not his motivation, insomuch as increased competition and proliferation of electric vehicles into the marketplace. Leading to the an end of fossil fuels in vehicles.

Ultimately, both statements can be true. Increase proliferation while generating multiple revenue streams off of Tesla R&D.

Yeah he understands value networks and disruptive innovation. Daimler needs to start looking like Tesla - no dealerships, big investments in batteries, cheap solar, in order to compete with Tesla. Especially since the article says they need to have smaller margins on the EVs.

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