SpaceX chief Elon Musk answers questions after the 2019 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition at the ... [+]
In business, there are two possible scenarios when it comes to competition.
On the one hand, when a major company enters your market segment, it can cause quite an uptick in interest (and sales) for all parties involved. The axiom “a rising tide lifts all boats” applies here. The best example of this in recent years is the large-screen television market. No one player is dominant. We’re all looking for a way to watch Netflix. There’s plenty of room in the market for companies like Hisense and TCL to compete with Sony and Samsung.
Yet, there’s also another scenario: A worthy upstart can steal away customers and market share. I’ve always wondered if the Apple iPhone (released in 2007) would have been even more dominant than it is now if Google had not invented the Android phone (in 2008). In reality, there are way more Android phones in use today than iPhones by a large margin. One recent report mentioned how almost 75% of all smartphones use Android.
It’s too soon to say what will happen with electric vehicles. According to the EEI, EVs still only account for about 2% of all cars sold. In Q1 of this year, only about 61,000 of them were sold.
What do we know for sure? Elon Musk is going with scenario one above. And, all it took is one tweet.
Recently, the famous entrepreneur retweeted an announcement by Ford Motor Company. Although Ford has dabbled in the electric car market for years and toyed with the idea, the announcement of the 2021 Mustang Mach-E SUV made a big splash. The car looks awesome, and Musk seemed to agree. He congratulated Ford on the announcement and welcomed the competition.
You might wonder: Why is that?
Musk is not at all afraid to share his opinions. He does not mince words. However, he is also smart enough to know that a major new addition to the market tends to capture attention even from those who have never thought about buying an electric car. And maybe those same customers will reconsider a Tesla vehicle instead.
All boats, you’ve been lifted.
One of my favorite “unofficial” stats is that Ford sells more trucks in one day than Tesla sells for all of their makes and models for the entire year. I’m sure that changes year to year and month to month, so there’s no way to really verify it as accurate, but the point is that Ford is a major automaker and Tesla is a startup.
It’s a curious thing from a social media standpoint. My views have changed over the years about what is worth sharing and what is worth keeping private, and what helps a brand and what hinders one. The trolls are alive and well. Musk retweeted the congratulations in a public setting (he has almost 30 million followers).
Now we’ll see if this is the tweet that jumpstarts an industry.
