Source: WIRED Daily
Major automakers are redirecting capital and R&D away from EV manufacturing—where margins are thin and competition is brutal—toward battery storage, charging infrastructure, and grid services, where they can capture higher-value software and services revenue. Rather than competing on vehicles alone, legacy automakers are positioning themselves as energy companies that happen to sell cars, mimicking Tesla's original playbook while ceding the mass-market EV race to Chinese competitors. The shift reflects a structural constraint: the automotive transition concentrates profit in the electricity ecosystem around vehicles, not in the vehicles themselves.