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Comment by jeremyrwelch | Hacker News Reader

My point with this post is that their business hinges on Battery production and tech more than any other component, and thus the lead they've created in this space matters more than any of their other innovations.

But you're right, their execution on multiple fronts is truly unreal.

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>thus the lead they've created in this space matters more than any of their other innovations

What lead do they have in battery production? Currently, they purchase all cells from Panasonic, if I'm not mistaken. Sure, the Gigafactory is going to be...big. But it's far from finished (and there's speculation that construction is on hold). Meanwhile, it's not like all the other large-scale battery producing conglomerates are just sitting around; they are also expanding production.

I mean it's a hell of a good point. Not trying to take away from the post.

Somewhat related: I remember that in the late 90s a Mitsubishi subsidiary, SUN-A, was tasked with developing transformers for Toyota's new hybrid cars. It'll be interesting to see if building a megacrop will be better than building a market place with various competing companies/contractors for this technology (Not that Tesla will prevent such a market place to develop -- indeed one already exists. I just mean it'll be interesting to see if Tesla will benefit from dominating by themselves, rather than delegating to existing market leaders).

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