Apple announced in February that it was exiting the auto industry after a decade of development. You may be surprised to learn that Apple was ever in the auto industry – but you may be even more surprised at just how many US companies are, at least nominally, carmakers. The Wall Street Journal reported that 43 electric vehicle (EV) and battery companies went public in the US between 2020 and 2022, with names like Lucid, Fisker, and Faraday Future. It has been a rough ride for many of them, and most will not last, but some may thrive – like Tesla, the most valuable car company on Earth.
For an industry dominated for generations by the “Big 3” in Detroit – General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler – this is a surprising hairpin turn. Cars became affordable early in the 20th century through mass production and, for manufacturers, bigger was cheaper, leading the industry to become highly concentrated. By the 1960s, GM’s US market share hovered around 50%, and the Big 3 were…