This isn't a car blog, but...there was a great story in the Wall Street Journal last week: a former SAP exec, flush with $200m of venture capital backing, plans to overhaul the automotive business model. Why can’t the car industry be more like the mobile phone industry, is the basic gist of his argument.
Shai Agassi has no experience of the auto market, but he does have a very clear goal: to change the way electric cars are sold. Car makers will sell the shell of a car (the handset), he will sell the battery and top-up power (the SIM card and call credit).
"In the early years of his company, he expects to distribute cars directly to companies or other large buyers," says the WSJ. "But he eventually expects consumers to get their cars from conventional dealers, while he operates an infrastructure that includes the batteries and the charging network. He likens his company to a wireless provider, such as AT&T, that provides a subscription service that makes phone calls possible, while auto makers would be like handset makers such as Nokia."
Brilliantly simple. I wish him luck, and waits to see how the oil and auto business fights to put him out of business.
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