> Rather than focusing on leveraging their greater manufacturing expertise in the fight for EV market share, they underestimated the challenge coming their way.

I think this phrasing paints people at these companies as being dumber or less perceptive than they are. People are simply acting in their own best interest rather than the company's. People absolutely downplay the EV threat beyond what they believe in order to further their own interests.

I would also say some of the foot dragging is just leadership not having limited capacity to think about different things. Leadership needs to keep an eye on all the existing supply chain and manufacturing stuff while also managing the EV side closely enough to be able to understand the benefits of different initiatives.