Tesla has nothing to worry about. Their sales will soften due to the macro and cost of money, their margins might compress, but they are still ahead of the legacy auto folks by leaps and bounds. They can lean into energy storage and other related power control businesses, that is their strength: they are an energy and power controls company. Cars are only one of the products. Legacy auto is selling autos, and only autos. Charger access deals unlocks revenue for Tesla out of legacy auto's pockets today while legacy auto has to figure out how to sell their own EVs in the future, and what choice do they have but to pay up if they want to sell EVs?

> After a decade of being trounced by Tesla Inc., this was supposed to be the year that traditional automakers finally put up a fight for electric cars. General Motors was committing its biggest brands to a new line of electric models; Ford and Volkswagen were ramping up production of EVs designed for the masses. It was, many predicted, time for the automotive world order to re-assert itself.

> Things haven’t turned out that way. Ford’s vaunted F-150 Lightning has been outsold by the R1T from Rivian, a startup that sold its first vehicle just two years ago. GM’s lineup of new EVs has suffered crippling setbacks in battery manufacturing. In July, Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer Thomas Schaefer succinctly summarized his own company’s EV competitiveness: “The roof is on fire.”

> With just three months remaining, 2023 has been less a redemption story for legacy automakers than further evidence of their quagmire. In the US, Tesla has been expanding production about as fast as all of its competitors combined. The Austin, Texas-based EV maker accounts for 61% of fully electric cars ever sold in the US, making it more dominant in EVs than Apple is in smartphones.

https://archive.ph/jfnHS | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-05/where-is-... ("Tesla's Year of Price Cuts Exposes Crisis for Legacy Auto")