Elon’s Gambit
Sorry, guys. Elon's played you. Again.
In a move that rendered the industry momentarily dumbfounded, Mr. Musk waved goodbye to the #Supercharger team. Bravo, Mr. Musk! Once again, it has been demonstrated who is the shrewdest guy on the block.
Let’s cut through the noise: Musk’s decision wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment lapse in judgment, as some pundits might suggest. No, this was a strategic cost-cutting gambit from the playbook of Tesla — a company that's turned its marketing into an art form.
Consider this: Charging points are not just hardware; they're screaming billboards for EVs on the highways. Sure, they drive car sales through the roof, but at what cost? A slice of your profit margins for every car rolled out. The theory goes, you could scale up to the point where the cost of adding one more charger is peanuts. But even Tesla, with its colossal footprint in the #EV realm, hasn’t managed that balancing act.
Just before giving the Supercharger team the axe, Musk cunningly tethered other automakers to Tesla’s charging standards. This will give a shot-in-the-arm to the Supercharger utilization rates (the time that the charger is charging and making money). If I were in his shoes, I’d also do the following — license out my charging tech to other players. Let them shoulder the costs of evolving the infrastructure, while I sit back and rake in a tidy sum regularly. (And who’s to say that’s not already on Musk's agenda?) But here's the rub: this kind of play has a shelf life; you can only pull it off once. Thus, no, there isn’t a lasting EV-charging business model here for OEMs.
So, to the other players in the game: looks like Elon screwed you. Again.
This teaser is just a slice of my forthcoming deep dive into EV charging business models. Stay tuned for the full story tomorrow—and hit that subscribe button for more hard-hitting takes on the #cleantech and #greentech revolution!
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