The toughest hurdles for today's EV startups to overcome, I once thought, were designing, engineering, testing, validating and manufacturing to world-class standards an all-new vehicle.
I might have been wrong.
Turns out that once companies such as Rivian, Lucid and Lordstown cleared those obstacles, a new and perhaps even more difficult maze lay ahead: distribution, marketing and the provision of timely parts and service. For small companies, those key operations add a lot of expense and head count at a time when revenue doesn't cover costs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk bloviated on social media in December that rival Lucid is headed for extinction. He has made similar self-serving remarks about Rivian. While it is in poor taste to publicly disparage rivals, Musk knows how difficult it is to start a car company that can clear design, manufacturing and marketing roadblocks and become profitable. In 2021, after 18 years of losses, Tesla reported its first full-year profit. Musk may throw major shade at the competition, but don't entirely discount what he says.
