Too Far Ahead? Porsche Discovers That Taking On Telsa Is A Tremendous Financial Challenge

Porsche is simply not accustomed to selling cars at price levels that do not make a significant profit. Tesla has NOT shown it can do that either. Porsche pricing - is largely what the market will bear - and often has little to do with actual costs. Especially on some Limited production cars. THey will not have that luxury with Electric cars - initially - because the projected reduction in the cost of Lithium alone has not materialized. (It is actually in short supply right now).

Since Tesla has released most of its patents - any manufacturer can use them without royalty - so Tesla has no real advantage. (Except that they already make the cars).

Cost of Li-ion cells 10 years ago: $1,000/kWh
Cost today: $150/kWh

Tesla has not patented everything, they do hold trade secrets that require reverse engineering. Apparently that's harder/more expensive than hoped.

Porsche is simply not accustomed to selling cars at price levels that do not make a significant profit. Tesla has NOT shown it can do that either. Porsche pricing - is largely what the market will bear - and often has little to do with actual costs. Especially on some Limited production cars. THey will not have that luxury with Electric cars - initially - because the projected reduction in the cost of Lithium alone has not materialized. (It is actually in short supply right now).

Since Tesla has released most of its patents - any manufacturer can use them without royalty - so Tesla has no real advantage. (Except that they already make the cars).

It is somewhat intuitive that to effectively roll out an EV platform, a new or else HIGHLY modified auto architecture would be required.

As a public company, that is a challenging hurdle to overcome. See how costly it has been for Tesla (never turned a profit and has incurred significant losses) and also for GM (has GM made money on the Volt or Bolt? Maybe but prob not).

Basically the business case is STILL not there yet, despite what all the greenies assert.

Porsche is acknowledging that the EV lineup is likely a poor investment and is implicitly highlighting that companies don't stay in business long, by repeatedly and knowingly making poor investments.

BMW has made the leap to the 'dedicated architecture' and it does not seem to be working out so well for them!

This is just fodder for the press. VAG can spread a BEV platform across a wide range of sedans and SUV's as good as or better than any other vendor. It will come to market under many new models and they will be profitable.