Given this model shift, what differentiators exist? In a service world, it's all about timeliness, fitness for purpose, driver professionalism and cost. Nobody gives a shit about which hardware widget the manufacturer stuffed in the body anymore. It's literally irrelevant. They've lost the customer to the service provider, in the same way that telcos lost their customers to mobile device manufacturers. Telco data was commodified and SMS and phone use nosedived, just as vehicles are now commodified and demand for abnormal features is surely dwindling. Smart manufacturers will become the service provider, thereby vertically integrating to gain maximum profit, at the same time removing old customer-facing assumptions around vehicle maintenance and related logistics paths to minimize downtime and cut costs. Driving, at least in cities, will be seen as something poor people do to earn/save money. Fully autonomous EV fleet maintenance stations by 2035.
Re: Ask HN: What will be the future differentiator in electric vehicles?
#171Apparently here in China you get free power (charging network access) for life when you buy certain new EVs for ~USD$30K. I think personal transport in developed markets globally has clearly begun moving to a service rather than ownership model because the overheads associated with driving (license, parking, maintenance, vehicular ownership transaction regulatory and process overhead, depreciation, sobriety, cleaning, etc.) are just not worth vs. aging populations, shrinking family units, increasing urban densities, services like grocery delivery and a generally more mobile and connected workforce.