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Brown tells the story of Tesla's war against legacy automakers. GM, Ford, and Toyota dismissed electric vehicles as toys for decades. Tesla proved the market existed by building desirable EVs that people actually wanted to drive — starting with luxury and moving downmarket.
Canon
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Brown traces how Musk studied the EV1 (killed by GM's corporate politics), Fisker (killed by poor engineering and supplier dependence), and other failed EVs. Tesla's strategy — start with luxury, build its own factories, sell direct to consumers — was designed to avoid each predecessor's specific cause of death.
Highlights
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Legacy automakers didn't fail to see EVs coming — they failed to act because their existing business model (ICE vehicles, dealer networks, parts revenue) would be destroyed by the transition
Brown argues GM, Ford, and Toyota all had electric vehicle programs in the 1990s-2000s (GM's EV1, Toyota's RAV4 EV) but killed them because successful EVs would cannibalize their profitable ICE business, anger their dealer networks, and eliminate the lucrative parts and service revenue stream.