Tesla Motors may not be the only major player in the electric car industry for much longer. According to this article written by Adam Westlake, three major German car makers all have electric cars in the works. Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi are using the Model S sedan as a benchmark for their respective upcoming cars. These cars are expected to debut in 2018 at the earliest.
Tesla Model S
Tesla disrupted the combustion-engine car market creating a green, sustainable alternative to vehicles that produce carbon emissions. It doesn’t surprise me that companies are going to attempt to follow Tesla as the electric car industry grows. However, questions will arise once these cars arrive from companies like Porsche and Mercedes. How popular will they be over their gas-powered cars? Will they draw consumers away from the Tesla Model S? I expect that Porsche will be very successful in the electric car market as they have already recognized the demand for more efficient vehicles by introducing e-hybrid model variants of their popular Cayenne SUV and Panamera sedan. Mercedes and Audi also have begun to implement plug-in hybrid technologies into their current cars. As of late, Tesla has been very successful because of the lack of direct competitors within the electric car market, but as technology improves, other companies will begin to build cars meant to compete with the Model S sedan.
Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid
Resources:
http://www.porsche.com/canada/en/models/panamera/panamera-s-e-hybrid/
http://www.porsche.com/canada/en/models/cayenne/cayenne-s-e-hybrid/
http://hybridabc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/tesla_logo_1_.jpg
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2012/09/01-2012-tesla-model-s-fd-1347336745.jpg