Blog: Electric Vehicles - The Silicon Valley Years

In the 19th century, electric vehicles (EVs) were regarded as the superior mode of transportation, at least within cities, where range and speed shouldn’t matter.
In the 20th century, EVs got almost forgotten. Due to the oil shortage in the late 1960s and early 1970s, there was a renewed interest, but …

EVs never took off because no government had the will nor wisdom to follow through on fossil fuel independence.
EVs never took off because Detroit, Stuttgart, and Modena were in charge, and they already did significant business with Internal Combustion Engines (ICE), so why change that?
EVs never took off because political power or consumer pressure was not big enough to force the established manufacturers to change.

Basically, neither legacy companies nor governments were willing to invest enough time and money to see things through. There was some funding for Research and Development (R&D), and there were some concept cars, but essentially, the EV was restricted to Mars rovers, Powered Industrial Trucks (PITs), forklifts, or golf carts. Successful private electric vehicles were often DIY projects created by enthusiasts or tech enthusiasts.

There is a clear parallel to what happened in the Autonomous Vehicle (AV) space around 2008. Geeks and enthusiasts had proven that the technology could be viable, but legacy companies weren’t too interested. Only once Google’s founders got interested, did Self-Driving become a viable business interest.

The Modern Era Begins

There was no chance that EVs would take off in the US unless Silicon Valley got involved. GM had a viable concept, but would rather bury it than bringing it to a wider market. They didn’t want to disrupt their well-working system. Scenarios like this requires a real disruption. And that usually requires the combination of Silicon Valley brain power and ‘foolish money’, the kind you find along Sand Hill Road. And while Tesla didn’t invent the electric vehicle, the Silicon Valley connection was instrumental in pushing the US legacy companies into the modern era.

Internationally, oil-poor Japan, China, and Europe weren’t sleeping on these new technologies either. The Germans were focusing on hydrogen, the Japanese on hybrids, and the Chinese government was most serious about batteries and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

2000: The Toyota Prius – the World’s first mass-produced hybrid (since 1997) – becomes available in the US.
2001: The Chinese Government includes EV technology research into their Five-Year-Plan.
2002: GM introduces concept car Autonomy at the Detroit Autoshow. It introduced a basic drivetrain system and envisioned hydrogen or batteries as a power source.
2003:BYD Auto was founded in China.
2003: Influenced by the fun tZero and the success of the EV1, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla in San Carlos (HQ 1050 Bing Street, San Carlos, CA).
2006: CA Gov. Schwarzenegger signs The California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) into law, aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote cleaner vehicles.
2006: The famous documentary “Who Killed The Electric Car” about the demise of GM’s EV1.
2007: Former Audi engineer Wan Gang becomes China’s minister of science and technology, boosting EV technology.
2007: Tesla has Henrik Fisker starting project “WhiteStar” – the codename for the Model S. After some disagreement with Elon Musk, Fisker gets replaced by designer Franz von Holzhausen.
2007: Henrik Fisker leaves Tesla and starts EV company Fisker Automotive. They created the Fisker Karma – one of the first production luxury plug-in hybrids.
2008: Tesla introduces its first car, the Roadster, sharing parts with the Lotus Elise. (One of these roadsters is currently on its way to Mars … or the Sun)
2008: Founders Eberhard and Tarpenning are ‘transitioned out’ of Tesla by Elon Musk.
2008: BYD F3DM PHEV (16 kWh LFP, 60 mi, regenerative braking) becomes the world’s first mass-produced PEV. Going forward, BYD stands for Build Your Dreams.
2009: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is passed, providing significant funding for electric vehicle development and infrastructure.
2009: Renault shows off the Renault Zoe Concept EV – a small city car with an estimated range of 99 miles.
2009: China is starting to offer subsidies and tax breaks – even for foreign cars – and sells its first 500 EVs.
2009: Rivian is founded.
2010: BMW is experimenting with EVs. First, they have a Mini E. Starting in 201,2 they leased 700 BMW ActiveE models to select US customers called “Electronauts“

BMW “Electronauts” meet at Crissy Field in San Francisco [Source: G. Stieler]

The Race for World Dominance

“Out with the Old – In with the New”

We in Silicon Valley had a front row view on what Tesla was doing in San Carlos and after taking over Fremont’s old NUMMI plant. In Palo Alto, Tesla first took over the former HP/Agilent Technologies campus on Deer Creek Rd. Once Elon Musk turned more political he moved his HQ to Austin. However, he then relocated Tesla’s Engineering HQ back to California and to a campus previously occupied by the former Silicon Valley powerhouse HP. Amidst all the drama, we might have overlooked the fact that Tesla wasn’t the only one pushing new technologies. They might have had a monopoly on US News headlines, but since 2010, the electric wheels have been rolling faster and faster on several continents.

2010: The Nissan LEAF enters the picture as the first mass-market all-electric vehicle. It comes with precious Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) capabilities out of the box.
2010: Zhejiang Geely acquires Volvo from Ford for $1.8B.
2012: Tesla releases the Model S, praised for its performance and design.
2012: Renault already starts delivering their production version of the ZE or “Zoe”.
2012: Hurricane Sandy flooded and destroyed Fisker’s entire European shipment of 338 Karmas in New Jersey, which is a huge setback.
2013: Henrik Fisker resigns from Fisker Automotive, which eventually files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2014: Tesla announces autonomous driving with their Full Self Driving (FSD) – however, it’s really just an ADAS or Advanced Cruise Control.
2014: Formula One starts a Formula E series.
2015: Tesla releases their SUV named Model X. Immediately, parents keep telling their kids to close the doors after getting out.
2015: Within a short time the companies NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto are started in China. Each one is trying to bring something special to the table.
2016: Henrik Fisker starts another EV company named Fisker Inc. Their only car before they filed for Chapter 11 in 2024 is the SUV Fisker Ocean.
2017: China announces plans to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles.
2017: Geely, who already own Volvo, Lotus, and Aston Martin, becomes the largest shareholder of Daimler and therefore Mercedes-Benz.
2017: Volvo is announcing a joint venture with Geely named Polestar.
2017: Tesla’s Model 3 is one of the most economical production cars and became the best-selling electric car globally.
2019: Ford announces the Mustang Mach-E.
2019: Tesla introduces its concept car, Cybertruck, as a BEV-powered pickup truck.
2020: California Governor Gavin Newsom announces a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
2020: Renault’s Zoe is named Europe’s all-time best-selling EV.
2021: BYD has 288,800 employees.
2021: Rivian is having its IPO and announcing an Amazon partnership. You might have seen many of the Amazon EV delivery vans by now.
2022: The Inflation Reduction Act is supposed to provide significant incentives for EV purchases and manufacturing, incl. battery technology.
2022: Ford’s F-150 Lightning is the first US-manufactured vehicle offering V2H – something Nissan offered 12 years earlier.
2023: BYD is regarded as the world’s largest manufacturer of PEVs – they employ some 700,000 people, with 100,000 in R&D [China].
2024: According to some sources, BYD surpassed Tesla in global sales with 4.21M vehicles.

This list is far from being complete, as many car legacy manufacturers have been left out of this discussion. The Volkswagen group has plenty of interesting models, including ID4 or ID. Buzz. Hyundai and Kia have recently introduced several popular BEVs. Did I mention Lucid – a Newark company? I never mentioned India and its brands like Tata Motors, Mahindra, and Jaguar. India also has built an armada of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers.

China has more to offer than BYD. We could write a book about all the things behind Zhejiang Geely’s strategy to own major parts of companies and brands like Volvo, Lotus, London black cabs, Lynk, Zeekr, Geometry, Polestar, Aston Martin, and Renault. On one hand, Geely acquired a lot of “Western technology”. However, it is also positioning itself to steer positions, such as Volvo’s announcement to stop producing ICE models by 2030. We can see similar development between VW and Rivian. Their $5B joint venture gives VW access to EV expertise, and Rivian can use the money and European exposure. We have to expect more such consolidations and joint ventures in the near future.

Conclusion

Tesla has been dominating our local headlines for the last 10-15 years, leading people here to assume it has a monopoly on electric vehicles. The whole point of this long timeline was to show how many companies have been working on EVs. The competition is fierce now that many legacy companies are investing in their products, having previously only announced and showcased concept cars.

US manufacturers are still losing money on their EV technology, and they keep lobbying DC to go back in time. Ford and GM are wavering and losing ground. Washington DC can only protect them for a while from competition through tariffs. But if Tesla can’t pull this around, the US will have little to offer to the world in terms of EVs and modern mobility.
Tesla had little room for error before, but now they have no wiggle room at all.
The end of Tesla isn’t written just yet. But we here have a front row seat and vested interest in this Silicon Valley company that bullied all these legacy automakers into the future.