Volkswagen AG and Toyota plotting the overthrow of Elon Musk led Tesla
The epic fight over who controls the future of the car industry is about to get a whole lot more interesting. Tesla Inc., the pioneer and pacesetter, has dominated the early rounds of the new-energy age, capturing investors’ imaginations with a vision for what the next generation of vehicles looks like and seizing the nascent market for fully electric cars.
In the other corner are giants of scale: Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp. The world’s two biggest automakers — each sold roughly 10 or 11 cars for every one Elon Musk did last year — realize the age of the battery-powered vehicle is here and are gaming out how to stay on top.
Within five days of one another last month, these masters of mass production laid out plans to splurge $170 billion over the coming years to preserve their claim on an industry they’ve dominated for decades.
Executives at the very top of these incumbents are acutely aware the transition from the internal combustion engine won’t be orderly. It could get ugly — something akin to when Apple Inc. entered the mobile phone market and outclassed once-dominant Nokia Oyj.
After a year of standout growth during which Tesla became far and away the most valuable automaker ever, the trillion-dollar question is whether Musk’s advantages heading into the next generation of carmaking are as insurmountable as his company’s market capitalization suggests.
“When the two biggest car companies in the world decide to go all-in on electric, then there's no longer a question of speculation — the mainstream is going electric,” said Andy Palmer, the former chief of Aston Martin and ex-Nissan Motor Co. executive often referred to as “the godfather of EVs” after being instrumental in developing the Japanese carmaker’s
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