This article may appeal more to readers who are currently aware OEMs have been dropping ICE powered vehicle lines at a fast rate to stave off failure as they transition to all EV sales in the next decades.
Fast moving transitions..... not something the Auto industry is particularly adept at. Pure ("traditional")Tech-sector companies regularly Zoom, Crash, Burn because they didn't manage their Nu Tek AND their cash-flow competently. It's not easy, by any stretch.
Auto has the historical advantage over pure-Tech in that it is a somewhat protected industry..... bailouts were common news, long before EV was
A Thing....... so I won't be surprised to see more bailouts unless they are deemed
Evil Enough To Fail.....
Ford had been in $ trouble a while back, and chopped traditional car production going back to 2018 or so. Even w/o Covid disruption to production, ramping
down ICE production while sllloooowwwlllllyyyyy ramping
up EVs is a huge financial and logistical risk.
Everyone, including Automotive companies, is
still used to Big Oil
Just Being There. You build a traditional ICE vehicle, and the lubricants and fuel to run it are Just There. What I mean is How To Power It and Keep it Running, is somebody (Big Oil) else's Problem.
Elon has moved EVs to where they are by applying applying eng logic writ large....... he looked at the TOTAL solution needed, Designed and Built It, so They Will Come. I saw what he was doing with the SuperCharger network from the Get Go, but what really highlighted this reality was the few vids I watched (I think I posted at least one here) recently showing Mach E roadtrips in the USA.
3'rd Party Charging for the Mach E was often an expensive, flakey, and slow process. Throwing E-fueling
Over The Wall (traditional Auto ICE/Big Oil dynamic) is not performing the way modern first-world consumers expect/demand.
I don't view Musk as the messiah that some do, but I recognize that his
Own The Whole Problem approach is a large part of what has moved Tesla to the forefront of this game.
Long Sunday morning ramble...... basically to say that the ICE industry still has a long way to go,
just in regard to changing their mindsets.
This ^, is also part of why I've said producing and marketing EVs reminds me a lot of cell-phones. It's much more of a tech-sector play, than anything the Olde Auto Industry has ever seen.....
Borrowing McQuaig's book-title....... Tech only has
The Quick, and The Dead.
Rgds, D.