>The thing about companies like Honda and GM -- they have a lot of momentum. That means they aren't likely to be on the forefront of innovation, but when they turn towards a new target, they will hit with massive resources and established global production capacity that a start-up can only dream of.

Exactly. It's the difference between a handful of dudes in a speedboat with some explosives and an aircraft carrier. Once the latter is aware of the former you can be reasonably assured who of will win. At most the former can hope to land a good sucker punch before the latter knows they're even fighting.

The core competency of GM, Honda, etc. is building cars. Once they decide what kind of cars they want to build they will do a good job building them as they intend to build them. They don't make rookie mistakes, especially in the logistics of spinning up production lines to build what they want to build. They've re-tool their factories every time a new generation or a new model comes out. They know how to do it right the first time, knowledge that comes from experience.