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Not negating any of what Hehe has said above, and I like the iPhone vs Android analogy that you are drawing, but I'd say one crucial aspect that has not been taken into account is how much more complex and process-intensive the automotive manufacturing sector is compared to almost pretty much anything else.
Existing auto manufacturers are exceedingly efficient in their manufacturing operations -- they have to be, or they'll be out of business. By comparison, you can see how completely inadequate Tesla is in this regard. Building cars in an outdoor tent that is hastily set up?
And this isn't about building something that retails for $1000. I don't know what the manufacturing cost of building a car is, but it is definitely way higher than making phones. If you screw up something, you are losing big $$$ with each and every vehicle you build, so that adds up fast.
The way I see it is, EVs really need a thorough marrying of 2 entities -- the electronics / computer aspect, as well as the traditional auto manufacturing aspect. It's gonna take too long for just 1 side to figure it out on their own. IMO, the traditional manufacturing sector has a slight advantage because they already have the expertise that costs significantly more to develop, hone, and perfect. VWAG and Toyota, in particular, seem like they are far ahead of the rest of the pack in coming out with viable EVs.
The Taycan does not suck because VW didn't know how to build a proper EV. IMO, Porsche just chose to spec the Taycan that way because they have certain priorities in mind regarding long term support of their vehicles -- ie. the Taycan is only doing maybe 70 - 80% of what it is really totally capable of because it wants to guarantee a certain level of performance. Tesla is taking a different approach by opening everything up so you get access to nearly 100% of what the car is able to do now, but it is offering less guarantees on other aspects that support the vehicle's on-going operations.
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