It would not surprise me to find out that Apple makes more money per iPhone manufactured than Toyota does per Corrolla, but I could definitely be wrong about that.
>However, I think the weakness in electrification and software makes it clear that there's little true innovation. Legacy automotive turned into a stable market, and participants were happy to fight over pennies
If you sell millions of cars you can hire a whole team of penny pinchers who will then save your business 10s of millions dollars. Every penny pays for a $100k salary.
If anything the semi conductor shortage is causing downstream issues in VW's ability to produce more ID.3s.
I live in Europe and keep pondering moving to a bigger city and downsize just to give up the need of a car since the maintenance and the rest of the costs are going up faster than my pay. I can see a lot of low-middle class people getting screwed by the rising costs of car ownership long term.