Detroit doesn’t have the answers
As a nimble, growing electric car company, we took issue with David Welch’s recent BusinessWeek article on the Energy Department’s funding of two green car start-ups, Tesla and Fisker. Not that we weren’t just as baffled as the rest of America about why the Energy Department would give nearly a billion dollars – $993 million to be exact – to companies that are building cars likely to be out of the price range of the majority of the population. We were. But, that wasn’t the point the story was making.
In the article, veteran auto industry analyst Maryann Keller said in response to DOE’s announcement, “We’re pouring $1 billion into two companies without a future. The economics of the industry favors large companies.”
The idea that smaller companies can’t be successful and therefore won’t lead the revolution in alternative transportation is what we take issue with. Within the past year, two of the three big, domestic auto companies went into bankruptcy and dealer sales tanked. If that doesn’t say the auto industry needs a fresh breath of air from smaller players with disruptive models that aren’t confined by the bureaucracy of large corporations, then we don’t know what does.
Between rising carbon emission-related environmental degradation, Americans’ anti-oil sentiments, and the lack of alternative options, the market desperately needs innovative, nimble companies, like CODA Automotive, that can move quickly to shift expectations and get electric cars on the market that meet drivers’ needs and are better to the environment.
It’s hard for us to believe that one of the industry giants will do this – especially considering their businesses were founded on and are still concretely rooted in the production of internal combustion, gas guzzling vehicles.
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