In Business | Tesla’s apparent altruism with its patents is just smart business
Success comes from creating new markets based around existing ideas, not discovering new ones
At first glance, it looks as though the good folks over at California-based Tesla Motors have gone mad.
The company owns hundreds of patents for making electric cars. Now it is saying to anyone who's interested: go ahead and use them, because we have no intention of seeing you in court.
Tesla's problem is that although it is a leading player in the electric car and van market, the market is too small; indeed it only accounts for 1 per cent of sales.
Critical mass has not been achieved, and because very few companies are committing themselves to the electric market, it is hard to bring down costs and expand the market.
What really makes money is not discovering the wheel but creating better wheels
Tesla is convinced that it can only build its business by creating a bigger market and thus bring prices down.