I was inclined to ignore your original question... the thesis for Tesla's rise is a lot of work and there are plenty of people that have given lengthy arguments pro and con. Therefore, your original question is more apt for Yahoo! Finance Boards or something like that, where people throw short form word salads at each other. You can't possibly expect that people would write up everything that goes into answering your question, and I really couldn't care less if one more short adds to their position. It isn't like there aren't plenty already. But if you really want to know, there's a lot of material to go over. That includes various speeches made by Tarpenning, Musk, and JB Straubel. It includes listening to long term investors like Ron Baron. It means reading the reports by analysts and futurists. There are plenty.
However, this question you posed here is a bit easier to provide a short form answer. You think that the automobile industry is mature and cut throat with deep pocketed competitors. Sure, that's a reasonable view if there wasn't thing concerning a movement towards electric vehicles. Instead, the mass production road worthy electric vehicle industry is very young. And the deep pocketed competitors are not spending their deep pockets on electrification in sufficient amounts. They also still have to do R&D for updated versions of their legacy products as well as satisfy shareholders with reasonable dividends and earnings. Therefore, they are not spending enough money to aggressively move towards electric vehicles. Some are still stuck on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles or just assume they will be able to wait and allow others to lead in electrification for a number of very pragmatic and, at first glance, completely reasonable reasons. This also means that the major automakers tend to short shrift the development of EV technologies, taking very short term decisions amongst the many thousands of design and production decisions necessary to bring a modern vehicle to market.
Before I move on, do you really believe the lithium ion batteries have not changed in the past 40 years? Your patent question indicates to me that you really do not understand the technologies, the competitive positions, nor the complexities of R&D, production, and the patents. Do you know the difference between the battery cells in a 2008 Tesla Roadster, the 2010 Nissan Leaf, the 2012 Tesla Model S, the 2015 Kia Soul EV, the 2016 Chevy Bolt, or the 2017 Tesla Model S/X 100? If you don't, you are woefully ignorant to be investing in this space. Do you understand the competitive positions between the cell level and pack level specific energy? The cooling capability? The charge cycle lifespan? The cost per kWh at the cell and the pack level? How about the supplier contracts and the ability to source the cells? How about the differences in the electric motors between a Tesla Model S and the Chevy Bolt? Or the IGBT design differences? Do you know the fundamental differences between the electric vehicle technologies that go into a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versus a long range BEV?
Your dismissive comment, "50 car companies capable of building electric battery cars" belies a complete misread of the industry. BYD is one of the biggest EV manufacturers by volume. But all of their battery production is LiFePO4 and the resulting BEV, the BYD e6 is terrible. Do you know why? Is it just the battery, or will BYD be able to make U.S. or EU spec vehicles any time soon?
You have to ask, why hasn't any major automaker made a straight up Model S competitor (long range BEV in the luxury mid to large sized sport sedan category)? Matter of fact, none of them will through 2019 at least. That will be 7 years of uncontested time. You have to look at what these manufacturers will bring to market and critically analyze what technologies they can bring to bear, what production volumes, and when this will all unfold. I think you will find that it takes time to sort out the motor controller of a high powered AC induction motor design. It takes time to design, implement, and test a new battery management and cooling system for battery cells. These aren't things that the major automakers cannot do, but it is not part of their current core competencies. They tend to choose easier to develop and bring to market versions and assume they will have time later to develop more suitable technologies for long range BEVs.
I leave you with this. In 2016, Tesla alone shipped more batteries in kWh than all of BYD + LG combined, the next two largest automotive battery manufacturers. If you cut out the non-competitive LiFePO4 chemistry, then LG + AESC + Samsung SDI + SKI all together didn't ship as much volume as Tesla alone. And that will repeat in 2017. And 2018. And likely 2019 and 2020. Since large scale battery production plants takes years to bring up to speed, we can project the marketshare of advanced LIBs in 2019 already. Instead of being one of the smallest players, in the world of battery electric vehicles, Tesla commands the highest volumes and the highest revenue. Which also translates into much higher scale of the most expensive parts of a battery electric vehicle... the battery cells, the battery pack integration, the power electronics, the motors, and the chargers. No one else even comes close. Which means Tesla often has the lowest cost, highest capacity, and best technology when it comes to EV specific parts of a vehicle. And that dominates the capacity limitations, feature/specs of the vehicles, and the COGS. Simply, you do not understand Tesla's moat and the implications with just the electric vehicle production and technologies.
This is before we even address the overall ecosystem like DC and AC charging as well as autonomous driving in the vehicle space as well as the development of solar and energy storage systems to look at the entire mosaic of a new energy company.
