LA Times looks at the troubles of four EV start-ups in California

The Los Angeles Times has an article taking a look at the the four most prominent California-based electric vehicle start-ups and the difficulties they face. The article touches on Phoenix Motorcars, Zap, Fisker and, of course, Tesla. A lot of what the article covers has already been discussed around these parts on numerous occasions but for those playing catchup, it's a decent primer on the difficulties of creating a new car company. Building any new car that meets modern customer expectations, regulatory requirements and is reliable and durable is an extremely daunting task. All of that needs to happen before you even think about actually making money on the whole deal, which few car companies seem to be able to do. The technical issues of integrating all the powertrain electronics, safety, body and entertainment systems is extremely costly and time consuming but must be done if you expect people to actually big bucks for an electrically-driven car. If you don't accomplish all of that, you may sell a few cars to rich early adopters and enthusiasts, but you won't have a sustainable business. One correction to the article: the author states that Tesla plans to build 1,000 cars this year, that number is closer to 600 and even that may prove to be a stretch.

[Source: Los Angeles Times]