Compare and contrast the strategy of Tesla to that of Nissan. Why has Tesla been successful in the electric vehicle market while Nissan has yet to?


Nissan introduced Leaf in 2011, 18 months before Tesla launched its first car, the Model S. Despite the head start, Nissan Leaf is discontinued as of 2023. Let’s explore why Nissan Leaf failed while Tesla succeeded.
While Nissan Leaf was innovative and introduced an alternative energy car, it was just a better car, but more is needed for consumers to adopt it. With the 9X effect, consumers were skeptical about its performance (range), unable to see the need for an electric car as they were satisfied with the reliable ICE (internal combustion engine) cars. Nissan Leaf is a good car on paper. However, consumers were unwilling to switch because of the status quo bias. Also, Nissan needed to build an ecosystem of products around electric vehicles, like charging stations. It relied on the traditional auto-sales process, which is already cumbersome, and consumers view it as a haggle.

On the other hand, Tesla came with 10X improvements overall in customer experience, drivability, charging stations, integrated hardware and software (over-the-wire updates), and direct to consumer sales model with zero advertising. Tesla broke the status quo bias of the consumers with the 9x effect. Telsa’s messaging is the key that stuck with the customers, planet-friendly cars.