FWIW one of my gnomes notes he thinks Elon is the unofficial R & D wing of the major car manufacturers. Interesting theory. IMHO we are this close to the break-through batteries ( 1 billion in Venture Capital this past yr for all the players in this space, they get it, it is going to happen and they want a piece of it ) and a paradigm change in transportation drivetrains via a host of batteries ( the missing component ) that will take us 2X to 3X from here ( or greater ) in terms of range with electric cars, and yes the million dollar question is charge times which is being worked on.
Can Elon make it another 2 or 3 yrs and also adopt the next gen ( solid state is my guess ) battery, or.... does he sell it / joint venture with someone who can build his cars. For a the crap the big 3 gets about building cars bla bla bla, they can get-r-done, he didn't do it with his latest model, big, big screw up.
This is very similar to my thoughts on Tesla.
1. Tesla can’t compete with the big boys (Honda, Toyota, VW group, GM, Ford).
2. The big boys have more money for R&D, more money for engineering, better ability to subsidize electric development from other product lines, dealer networks, etc.
3. Tesla will either have to partner with one of the big companies (i.e. “Honda, powered by Tesla”), or they’ll have to sell their battery packs to all the manufacturers.
I just don’t see how they survive as a complete automobile manufacturer as they’ll never be able to out-pace electric development from the big companies if the big companies ever get really serious about electric cars. Quality is also important to car buyers and Tesla is well behind the curve; even Tesla fans admit to this.