Building EVs without an adequate supply of batteries is building a fleet of lawn ornaments. The article was making the point that none of the other major automakers are doing what's necessary to secure a large enough supply to compete with Tesla before the middle of the 2020s. Most battery makers are scaling up production, but supply outside of China is going to be thin if anybody wants to mass produce an EV other than Tesla.
China is building factories to make cells for domestic consumption, but their market should be considered a separate market, few Chinese designs could meet regulatory approval outside of China and we don't know what kind of quality Chinese cells can be. Most Chinese manufacturers try to get away with the poorest quality possible.
The article did leave out Volvo, but their production is only around 500K a year for all models. By 2019 they will probably be making fewer cars than Tesla.
The article also left out most of the Japanese and Korean car makers. The Koreans are taking things a bit more seriously and are coming out with EVs and PHEVs, but most of the Japanese makers are still in compliance car land with no strategy to scale up. If Toyota wanted to mass produce a BEV, they have the production capacity to make gliders, but they don't have a battery supply locked down.
