Martin Eberhard has some simple advice for EV companies: Don’t try to beat Tesla by competing head-on with similar cars. Getty
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Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard says EV companies shouldn’t try to compete directly with Tesla.
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He said EV startups should try to find their own market and avoid launching Tesla-like models.
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Eberhard left Tesla in 2007 but has since worked at several automotive companies.
Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard believes that too many automakers are trying to beat Tesla on their own and that it’s a recipe for failure.
“My advice to anyone looking to get into the EV space right now is don’t try to compete head-on with Tesla,” Eberhard said in an interview with Insider. “Don’t make the exact same model.”
Eberhard said he’s disappointed in certain companies like Lucid. He said Lucid is trying to go head-to-head with the Model S with a similar electric sedan, the Lucid Air. The company unveiled its first prototype for the Lucid Air in 2016 and began shipping it to customers in 2021. The four-door luxury sedan has a price range of $87,400 to $179,000 and can travel up to 520 miles on a full charge.
Eberhard knows many former Tesla engineers who work at Lucid, he told Insider. Eberhard said he worked at Lucid in 2015 when the company was still known as Atieva, but wasn’t “a big fan” of its CEO and left after six weeks.
Lucid confirmed that Eberhard worked at the startup for a short stint in 2015, but declined to comment on his departure. A startup representative dismissed Eberhard’s characterization of the Lucid Air, calling it a “new benchmark for EV sports sedans.”
Ultimately, according to the Tesla co-founder, companies need to stop seeing the automotive market as a “winner-take-all industry.”
“There are different types of cars for different market segments,” said Eberhard. “From the start, everyone at Tesla knew that eventually the auto industry would catch up with them and they would compete with a number of other automakers.”
He added: “The world has supported more than a dozen successful major auto companies for generations. I see no change.”
Eberhard said he thinks more companies should try to emulate Rivian’s business plan.
“I’m much more enthusiastic about companies like Rivian, at least as far as the business plan is concerned,” said Eberhard. “Rivian looked around and said, ‘You know, the best-selling vehicle in North America is the F-150 truck.’ So if we want to find a new market, it’s a lucrative place to work.”
In the early 1990s, Eberhard and his longtime friend Marc Tarpenning came up with the idea for a company that would make cars with lithium-ion batteries. The two men founded Tesla in 2003, and Eberhard left the automaker in 2007. Eberhard previously told Insider’s Drake Baer that Elon Musk and Tesla’s board of directors met behind his back and voted to replace him as CEO.
When Eberhard left, Musk said the departure was related to delays in Tesla Roadster production as well as other operational issues.
“It wasn’t a question of personality differences as the decision to move Martin to an advisory role was a unanimous decision on the board,” Musk said at the time. “Tesla has operational issues that need to be resolved and if the board felt that Martin could somehow be part of the solution then he would still be an employee of the company.”
Musk didn’t respond to multiple Insider requests for comment on the story. Emails to Tesla’s press office went unanswered.
After leaving Tesla, Eberhard was the director of EV development at the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory for about two years. He has also worked at startups such as SF Motors and founded two EV battery startups, Inevit and Tiveni.
Read the full insider interview with Martin Eberhard.
Do you work for Tesla or do you have an insight? Reach out to the reporter via email at [email protected], via the secure messaging app Signal at 248-894-6012, or via Twitter DM @graceihle. Contact us from a non-work device.
Read the original article on Business Insider
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