Tesla makes huge margins on its electric vehicles, and this has attracted many automakers to this part of the industry, thus hastening the race for electric vehicle dominance. Now one more Tesla rival is claiming to dominate the EV segment.
Aston Martin ready to dominate EV space
Andy Palmer, chief executive of Aston Martin, said the road to fully-fledged electrification will be a long one.
Palmer told CNBC, “It’s going to take a while, for sure. You’ve got a difficult circle to break, you need volume.”
During his stint with the Japanese automaker Nissan as an executive vice president, Palmer, an expert in EV technology, oversaw the Nissan Leaf electric car program. Therefore, he is well aware of the headache of costly EV production. The U.K.-based firm plans to bring its electric sedan, the Aston Martin RapidE, to the market in 2018. For this purpose, it has teamed up with Chinese technology company LeEco.
“The market has gone toward midsized cars where you don’t have that pricing capability and as a consequence it’s difficult to cover the costs.”
This puts Aston Martin and the brand’s luxury rivals in pole position to lead the space, notes CNBC.
Palmer notes that rivals Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Bentley have failed to bring a full-fledged EV model to the market, thus paving the way for Aston Martin “to be a trailblazer in luxury electrics.” Palmer claims that the automaker’s RapidE is in a league of its own.
Though Tesla fits into the premium market and is a competitor to EVs from BMW and Mercedes, “Aston sits above that,” Palmer told CNBC.
Fisker re-enters the competition with Tesla
Tesla also will face another past rival very soon. Henrik Fisker is re-entering the electric car market and has announced two new models. Fisker Automotive, which he founded in 2007, built luxury cars that were popular with celebrities until it went bankrupt in 2013.
Fisker has now announced a high-end car and also an affordable mass-market model for his new venture, notes the BBC. Fisker promised a significantly longer range and a battery that is better than any others on the market at present, thus reviving his rivalry with Tesla.
“Both the technology and the market are more mature now than when we first started out as pioneers in the electric vehicle industry, and our new vehicle will be the most innovative and cutting-edge electric car ever created,” said Fisker.