Zinger Key Points
- GM executives once shrugged off Tesla as a “bunch of engineers playing with laptop batteries," says Nikola CEO Steve Girsky.
- Tesla now the global leader in the EV industry and others now have a lot of catch-up to do.
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General Motors Corp. GM, which is far behind Tesla, Inc. TSLA in the electric vehicle race, once did not attach much significance to the latter or its EV dreams.
What Happened: GM executives once shrugged off Tesla as a "bunch of engineers playing with laptop batteries," said Nikola CEO Steve Girsky in a CEO chat and Q&A session the EV truck maker posted on its YouTube channel.
Girsky is a longtime automotive industry executive, and his Tesla comments came while he explained Nikola's potential opportunity.
The veteran joined GM in 2009 and it was at that time he elicited opinions about Tesla from executives at the legacy automaker. The response from the executives was conventional wisdom at the time, he said. "We know how that turned out Tesla got a 10-year jumpstart on the entire industry," he added.
The Nikola top brass said he sees Nikola having a similar opportunity. "The big guys are writing off the zero-emissions trucking industry," he said, adding that they are playing with prototypes, but they believe this tech is a late-decade stuff at the earliest.
See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock
Why It's Important: Tesla has remained the numero uno global EV manufacturer despite the slew of startups entering the fray and the legacy automakers transitioning slowly but steadily into EVs.
The first-mover advantage has helped Tesla scale up, improve manufacturing efficiency and also do vertical integration.
As the going has got tough in recent years amid COVID-19 and the economic setback that followed, Tesla's dominance allowed aggressive price reductions and discounting to push volumes with minimal margin impact. This may not be true for other newbies, which may have to grapple with both production ramp-up and absorbing huge losses if they keep pace with Tesla on the price cuts. Alternatively, if they choose to keep prices high, their top line would come under pressure.
Tesla ended Tuesday's session up 0.46% at $266.50, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Read Next: Cathie Wood Says Tesla Holds Edge In ‘Winner Take Most’ Autonomous Driving And Robotaxi Opportunity
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