Slew of alternative automakers en route to being game-changers
The car, truck or SUV you now drive is more than likely powered by a fossil-fuelled internal combustion engine, purchased or leased at your local dealer, and manufactured by an American, Japanese or German company with a history of building cars that goes back well into the last century. But there are a handful of 21st- century “alternative” automakers that are thumbing their noses at the traditional way automobiles have been designed, built and sold, creating personal transportation solutions that could revolutionize our relationship with the car.
If you haven’t been in the market to buy a new vehicle in the past few years, it’s understandable if you don’t associate firms such as Apple, Google and Tesla — let alone even lesser-known companies such as Faraday Future or Atieva — as competitors to established auto behemoths that include General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen. Yet this rising generation has plans to offer new vehicles to the buying (or leasing or sharing) public in the next few years, and they’re already having an impact on old-school automakers.
Germany’s Mercedes- Benz lays claim to being the oldest automaker in the world, with founder Karl Benz’s self- propelled vehicles first going on sale in 1888. America’s Henry Ford started up in 1903. The first of the “new” automakers, California’s Tesla Motors, only started selling its original Roadsters in 2008.
Of the outlier automakers, Canadians more than likely know a fair bit about Tesla. Created by serial entrepreneur Elon Musk, Tesla followed its Roadster (the world’s first allelectric sports car) with its Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan in 2012 and recently launched its third model, the Model X electric crossover. With its lowvolume production of only electric vehicles, California location ( Palo Alto), small workforce (about 12,000 employees, compared to the VW Group’s almost 600,000) and direct-sales model (there are no Tesla franchise dealers), Tesla is arguably the template for any groundbreaking automaker.
In just a few years, you may be chauffeured to work by your self-driving Google Car. While established automakers such as Audi, BMW and MercedesBenz are also working to put self- driving cars on the market, Google has been working on autonomous vehicles since 2009. Google intends to make an electric Google Car available to the public in 2020.
Rival tech giant Apple has not announced its intentions to become an automaker, but rumours and facts strongly point in that direction. After aggressive hiring of employees from established automakers, including Ford, GM, VW and Tesla ( many with experience in electric cars and autono- mous driving), the Apple Car has moved to “committed project” status, with 2019 as a potential on-sale date, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Another underdog automaker — first thought to be a front for the Apple Car — is California- based Faraday Future. Backed by the owner of Leshi Television ( think of it as a Chinese Netflix), Faraday has made a more- public commitment to making cars than either Apple or Google. In the past few weeks, Faraday has announced that it will unveil an electric car concept ( penned by a former BM W electric- car designer) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. It also revealed plans to build a US$1billion factory in a Las Vegas industrial park with the goal of producing vehicles in 2017.
Joining the newbie automaker ranks most recently is Atieva. Like Faraday, Atieva is Chinese- backed ( by one of China’s largest automakers, state- owned Beijing Automotive Industry Corp.), California- based and will build only electric cars. A teaser sketch of a Tesla Model S- like concept has been released, which it says will debut at next April’s Beijing auto show.
Although the idea of walking into your local Apple store and driving away with an Apple iCar, or ordering an autonomous Google Car to chauffeur you to the grocery store seems like a dream come true for billions of consumers who already engage with these technological giants on a daily basis, these aspiring automakers face a David versus Goliath scenario for sales.
Today, only Tesla is selling vehicles to the public. And even with North American sales nearing 21,000 for the first 10 months of 2015, the electriccar maker is far from replacing giants like GM, which recorded sales of over three million in the same period.
That doesn’t mean new-car buyers shouldn’t pay attention to these outlier companies. Underdog automakers are already influencing the automotive industry. Many Tesla Model S buyers are trading in their Mercedes and BMW lsedans and that has not gone unnoticed. Almost every major automaker has an electric “Tesla fighter” in the works. Perhaps the biggest proof these automakers will affect the next new car you buy — even if it comes from Ford, Chevrolet or Porsche — is the brain drain from Michigan and Germany to the U.S. West Coast. The demand to marry old- school manufacturers with California’s high-tech community has created a Detroit West, with the majority of traditional automakers setting up shops in Silicon Valley.
In the short term, buyers will still be able to go to a Ford dealer and get a new V8. In the long term, though, a few swipes on a smartphone and having a self- driving electric car take you is something many of the newest automakers are hoping will soon become reality.