More on the challenge of today's trailblazing electric vehicle start-ups

As fitting as it may seem to compare the birth of automakers a hundred years ago to the current sprouting of entrepreneurial automakers selling electric vehicles, Jesse Snyder of Automotive News points out that it's not quite comparing apples to apples. For one, the very first vehicles were created as a replacement for the horse and buggy and pioneering automakers did not exactly have well-established competition to go up against. Modern independent automakers looking to grab some market share have ICE vehicles already on the roads as well as deep-pocketed corporations engineering EVs to go toe-to-toe with. Additionally, nowadays, there are stringent safety regulations to pass. Finally, since the EV is not exactly a new concept, as we've written before, we're assuming it probably does not have the same 'wow factor' for the public as, say, the first ever vehicle that didn't require an animal for propulsion.

Although the automakers then and now faced different circumstances, it is certain that they have passion for their work. For a small EV company to make it big in this market is no small feat. Only time may tell, but hopefully, some of these new visionaries are destined to join the ranks of their predecessors. For more on this topic, read this column by Richard Canny, the former CEO of Think.

[Source: Automotive News]