There has been a great deal of overgeneralizing in the press: "Wait until Audi/Porsche/Mercedes/Jaguar introduce their electric cars."
But here's the thing: while taking a car and putting an electric motor in it is a step in the right direction, it doesn't mean the car will be great.
My test day on the slalom course and around town with the Jaguar I-PACE was like that: hmm...meh. Quieter, peppier—yes. But I wasn't holding back buying a Jaguar because they needed to be quieter, or peppier. (By the way, I-PACE still isn't the quickest version of the x-PACE line.)
Like the Audi, I have no idea why a traditional Jaguar customer would buy I-PACE, unless they LOVED Jaguar and really wanted an electric car for the sake of having an electric car. But we have years and years of history that show that the percentage of people who primarily buy a car because it's electric is marginal—which is what led Toyota and other major OEMs to pooh-pooh their demand forecasts for all-electric vehicles. Well, until March 31, 2016 when people lined up in droves for Model 3.
The trad automakers have yet to face the most daunting aspect of Teslas: the software. Software is the hardest and most valuable part of most modern businesses. Tesla is dragging the auto world into 2019, and they are resisting mightily. "We have future models with big LCDs to show the gauges!" they might say. "Our upholstery is better! Our paint is better!"
The key to delivering a long-lasting, high-performing battery is software. The chemistry is easy to copy (grab a 2170 and do a chemical analysis), and widely discussed. The reliable in-use management is a black art, all done in software. How fast to charge, how fast to discharge, management over temperature and time. Tesla has a decade of experience in that, and they make their own electronics to fully enable it at a deep, module-by-module level.
As Alan Kay once said, "People who are serious about software should make their own hardware." Trad automakers aren't even close to that—they aren't even making their own software, they are buying it as well as their hardware from a variety of vendors and cobbling it together.
/rant