I can understand their position of wanting to remain 100% local but they're a private company, it's on them to adapt to the world and not the other way around.
Volume and demand for electric vehicles has not quite hit a tipping point, but just at the right time they've come out with the i3, which has really beaten Tesla in quite a few different aspects. Ditto the Ford Lightning or what have you.
IMO the car companies are actually not quite as naive as we've come to think. They robably have internal roadmaps ready for the next 10+ years of electric releases.
I expect they will ramp up to a "Tesla killer" at just the right time.