Out of anyone, Nissan I think has a better chance to become a dominant EV player, they've got a decade of experience with the LEAF. They were running a bit behind, but Ariya looks a lot more mature than the id.4.
And I know it’s still fashionable to bash Tesla on HN (Tesla is one of the few companies still pursuing customer-owned self-driving capability even after the overall hype curve has peaked and they haven’t yet reached their goal, so they get lots of grief for that, some of which is understandable), but their electric car offerings are head and shoulders above anyone else still. I’m looking forward to more competition that actually meets Tesla’s level of performance, maybe Rivian (when will they deliver?) or Lucid. The other pure electric cars on the market especially in the US are like toys in comparison (although still can be good value and better than conventional cars).
VW I hope will have a good showing, though. Still no one is really pursuing a good charging network solution that is seamless & practical like Tesla’s.
I feel the difficulty of making EVs has been vastly exaggerated - any manufacturer that knows how to make an hybrid knows how to make an EV.
Previously it was "we want to take $X from the customer who buys the car, what can we cram into the package so that they feel they got something appropriate in return?", whereas for EV it's more liked "the battery is $X, $X+$tiny is the highest we could possibly demand, we need to find the least embarrassing car we can build around that battery for $tiny". Tesla's innovation was starting EV at the luxury end of the market, all previous attempts were doing the opposite. Compared to that all other Tesla innovations are insignificant, no matter how big they are on their own.
Sure, that's no dedicated EV platform. But who really cares for cars one size class smaller than a Golf, or the same?
they do. they however do not seem to understand how to build up a good charging infastructure.
Just doing basically 1 car not updating it much and then not doing anything for many years while losing many billions at same time, is literally the exact opposite of being in a great position.
The Ariya is their first car after a long time and based on all the reviews I have seen it has not blown anybodies mind.
Overall Nissan volume are small and they are nowhere near as deep in terms of battery supply chain as Tesla or VW.
I do think Nissan's know-how will play a role but much more likely that the actual sales numbers will come from the Alliance's more agressive cost-cutting brands like Renault or even Dacia.
Volkswagen is about to launch many electric modele across many brands, using a single modular platform.