Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) commands 80% of the battery electric vehicles in the US. Its dominance is unsustainable in the long-term, according to Morgan Stanley. Startups such as Rivian, which has access to capital and talent, expect to offer serious competition to Tesla. Rivian has a backing of e-commerce giant – Amazon for funding. The startup expects to deliver 100,000 electric vehicles by the year 2030 and meets the demand of Amazon.
Rivian scores funding of $1.3 billion
Rivian has mobilized funds of $1.3 billion recently. The total funding at this startup is now $2.8 billion in 2019. It is almost twice the capital spending of Tesla in 2019. The overall cash haul at Rivian is higher when compared to the combined spending of General Motors and Ford on electric vehicles next year. Rivian can even construct a Giga factory in a low-cost nation. It could also use the funds to build three electric variants. Therefore, Rivian expects to challenge the dominance of Tesla soon.
Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler pose a threat
Peugeot merger with Fiat Chrysler will create the fourth-largest automaker in terms of sales. The $50 billion merger announced in November 2019 expects to create a blistering competition in the next five years. All these factors pose a great challenge to the dominance of Tesla in the battery electric vehicle space going forward. However, Tesla has put in significant efforts to stay ahead in the race.
Tesla issues a holiday update to the software
Tesla enthuses its car owners on this festive eve with a new software update. It is full of goodies for the owners of Tesla cars. The company has introduced a TRAX music studio app and two innovative video games. It has also introduced several new features to help Tesla car owners to focus on the road and the wheel and interact less with the touch screen.
Tesla introduced voice command to read the text messages and write replies. They need just to depress the right scroll button to read out the received text message. You need to press the button again to take your voice commands and reply to the message. The company has updated its voice command system to recognize the natural voice and carry out the instructions.
