John Martin, Nissan North America's senior vice president of manufacturing and supply chain management, had some harsh words for Tesla on Friday. According to him, Uber — not Tesla — is the real disruptor, and what Tesla is doing now is relatively easy, Automotive News reported.
"Lot's of people are calling Tesla a disrupter. They are not," he said while arguing that building a performance vehicle that's priced over $100,000 is much easier than manufacturing an electric car for under $30,000.
And what about Apple and Google? Martin doesn't foresee either of them getting into the auto manufacturing business anytime soon.
The reason: The profit margin in building cars is too low to interest the technology giants. While cars typically return 10-percent margins, those companies are used to 30 to 40-percent margins from their products.
But, Martin really drove home his view on Tesla.
"People ask me: 'When are you going to compete with Tesla?' And I ask them, 'When is Tesla going to compete against me?'"
As for Uber, Martin sees them as a bigger threat as they are a service provider with significantly lower costs than a manufacturer. Uber is mixing it up in the taxi space and pushing the taxi industry as a whole to evolve.
The post Nissan Exec: Uber, Not Tesla, a Bigger Threat appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
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