Maybe Elon Musk is really just being purely altruistic and wants to stick it to the patent trolls, but I suspect this is a calculated and shrewd business move.
In order for there to be wide-spread adoption of EV technology, there needs to be a common infrastructure platform (like charging stations). If every manufacturer of electric vehicles has a competing standard, they'll never catch on because consumers will worry that "their" model won't have sufficient support. One would think the big auto manufacturers have more power and clout to create a nationwide service network than Tesla does. If this move encourages every manufacturer to adopt their technology, though, then Tesla can compete on quality and price, not availability of supporting infrastructure.
|