Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

The concept of electric vehicles is not one conceived by Tesla by any means, but they are the first company to adopt it wholeheartedly and market it in the luxury market environment, competing with high end traditional vehicles such as Mercedes.
The amount of research they have invested into (both technological and market oriented) creating a "new" feeling to and idea that has been around is not surprising to anyone who has ever sat inside one. As a company who deals solely with electric cars, the only company in fact, they must be the epitome of the concept, becoming a synonym of the word.

While none of their products are exactly new-to-the-world, they have spent considerable time making sure their components (battery, engine, operation system, etc.) are several steps ahead of anyone who has previously conceived of similar ideas. One example is their automatically, constantly updating operation system (much like that of an iPhone), ensuring that all who have invested in their products enjoy the most up to date technology has to offer.
Though the rate at which they introduce new product lines is very slow(only two within 10 years), every product is significantly distinct and designed for a different utility. Although their investment in market research seems fairly limited at this point, the majority of their efforts are routed into R&D, which makes sense considering their technology has yet to have been accepted by the mainstream of automotive consumers, and there is yet a long way to go before it surpasses the existing no
rms in the minds of the majority, in both convenience and price.