"The British Car Industry"
Please understand that this is only my opinion, but is based upon many years of observance and direct participation. I worked in the metal bashing industry from 1960 until 2007. Back in the sixties we had major manufacturers:-
1. Ford - owned by the US Ford
2. Vauxhall/Bedford - owned by the US GM
3. Rootes group - Humber, Hillman, Sunbeam, Singer, Commer & Karrier - British owned but eventually sold to Peugot France
4. Austin Motors, Morris Motors, Standard Triumph, Jaguar, Rover, Land Rover, Austin Healey, Morris Commercial - which pretty much all failed in different guises - BMC, Austin Rover etc etc and finally JLR
In addition there were many smaller business's - Rolls Royce, Bentley, Morgan, Bristol, Alvis, Reliant, Bond, TVR, Lotus, Jensen.
I was lucky enough to supply pretty much all of these companies with my product and my enduring memory of most of them is their arrogance and bullying. Successive bosses, unions and Governments managed to kill most of them off with their combined actions. Eventually, the Japanese manufacturers invaded with their more streamlined production methods and provided more attractive (subjective) alternatives which eventually resulted in the demise of 60-75% of those mainstream companies. Only those with a global demographic or a niche market had continued success.
Tesla, for me, is a breath of fresh air. Elon comes over as a bit of a clown at times and a genius at other times. How he has managed to sell his product which is expensive and of questionable build quality is completely beyond me, but he has. Not only that but he's so far ahead of the competition that 'quality' makers - Porsche, BMW, Audi (Auto Union as was) and Jaguar are attempting to compete and despite their vastly superior experience and funding are not really succeeding. The biggest difference for me is that Elon/Tesla are not arrogant or bullying in a business sense and even encourage and welcome the competition - and that is an astonishing business attitude.
The new truck reminds me of 'karts' that my friends and I would build in the 50's from a couple of pram axles, plywood and a bit of string for steering. Will it succeed - who knows - but if I were a betting man I'd say it will.
End of rant!