which outsider is going to disrupt the auto industry? Tesla? Apple? Google? Uber?
A senior Nissan executive said Friday that Uber will force traditional competitors to reinvent themselves or die — even as he discounted efforts by Apple, Google and Tesla to do the same.
“Lot’s of people are calling Tesla a disrupter. They are not,” said John Martin, Nissan North America’s senior vice president of manufacturing and supply chain management.
During a panel discussion at the Rainbow/PUSH conference in Detroit, Martin argued that Tesla does something that is relatively easy: Produce a high-performance car for more than $100,000. A more difficult task would be to produce a good electric car for less than $30,000.
“People ask me: ‘When are you going to compete with Tesla?’ And I ask them, ‘When is Tesla going to compete against me?’”