Not really. I'm saying that currently an EV fills a relatively small niche. For buyers without that specific niche requirement, an EV is usually overly expensive, or represents a pretty serious compromise in capability.
> I'm saying that currently an EV fills a relatively small niche.
You own two cars. Your family unit uses 3. You are the market. You are not the niche!
Think about personalization (upgrading trim). There are many fewer people who are interested in / need an expensive specific set of trim, but that's like 40% of auto industry profits. What you are calling a niche is the autos business.
Anyway most of the rest of the profits are financing, which is also all about getting people to buy cars every year or two or buy more than 1 car.
That said Tesla is so exceptional in their profitability. It remains to be seen if that's an outlier that will revert to the mean. They still derive significant profits from trim/personalization, like charging $5,000 more for sometimes literally disabling a software lock. But they also derive profits unlike other autos manufacturers from, essentially, subsidies and related, and for delivering Fisher Price fit and finish at Lexus prices. They recently started paying for advertising, which cost Toyota $1b a year for the decade Tesla hasn't been doing it, so I assume they will revert in everything else too.
So are EVs exceptional regarding their role, profitability etc. in the autos product mix? IMO no. If Tesla reverts to the mean, this is 100% true, and if it doesn't they are the exception to the rule.
