After years of failed attempts to displace Tesla and with Chinese upstarts prepping their own moves, German carmakers have switched gears to win the EV race, moving away from making incremental changes to their combustion-engine cars that have dominated for decades.
BMW, Mercedes and VW are pouring more than 100 billion euros into scaling up an entirely new infrastructure of platforms, battery plants and software to deliver a new generation of EVs. The hope is that these will lead on driving range as well as digital offerings that tap new sources of revenue and shut out tech rivals.
“From a hardware perspective I would have no doubts that they can make superb cars,” said Axel Schmidt, global head of the automotive division at management consultancy firm Accenture. “But can the complexity and quality needed for the software be mastered by a 120-year-old hardware manufacture? I’m not so sure.”