Examples prove my point: software wins again and again. Given you've provided no examples, or even any reasoning for disagreeing, it kinda makes your point meaningless, doesn't it?
A bunch of software engineers from Seattle beat the world's largest retailer despite no retail experience!
How? Logistics software. At the time, home delivery was laughable to anyone in retail - the overhead was considered so high it would be niche at best. What they didn't consider was how much slop and waste was tied up in human errors in logistics: remove those and not only is home delivery feasible, it's profitable.
As another example, consider Target Corporation: In the late 90s / early 00s their online retail were outsourced to a white-label software-as-a-service vendor for a simple reason: it was decided at the CEO-level that online sales and home delivery were niche at best. BTW, guess who online retail SaaS vendor was? Yup, a lil ole company called Amazon!
So basically TGT *paid* Amazon to build their online retail software!
That's pretty ironic, right?
Anyway, after about 5 years TGT's internal strategy group (run by former vice chair Gerry Storch who went on to be CEO at ToyRUs amongst others) figured out "UH OH" and TGT went through a lloooonnnggg slog unwinding Amazon SaaS, building their own software which, let's all agree, still ain't right a decade later.
Oh, it's most definitely the software.
As for but-it's-just-a-battery-amiright:
2007: So that's why Apple is so fucked right? I mean Nokia, Ericksson, Blackberry they have massive volume, massive retail presence, huge factories, monster supply chains, millions of customers!
After all, Apple is a tiny company compared to Nokia & Blackberry and all Blackberry has to do is come out with a full screen phone and Apple is toast!
Obviously that's not how it turned out - Apple slowly but quickly grew its market share until it overwhelmed all competitors, and it did it through software NOT hardware ... sure, hardware is a part of it, but to your point - anyone can make a fancy looking phone (or car): the trick is to make it just work ... and that takes great software, and that means creating team that updates that software every single day.
Look at your phone: is it running Tizen? iOS? Probably the latter. If you could buy a cheaper phone that still ran iOS would you? How about if it didn't?
In short, it's absolutely most definitely the software.
But, like I said, don't take my word for it, take the word of the CEO of the largest automaker on the planet
Herbert Diess, who launched Mission T to catch up to Tesla's software:
" how we can catch up with Tesla – a company focused exclusively on the future, without a traditional car business. Its Silicon Valley-style ecosystem is influenced by software capabilities, focus on technology and risk culture. "
If VW can't replicate the Tesla culture, and
most importantly its software capabilities, then at best it can hope to Target or Walmart ...
More likely, Tesla buys Ford or VW or Porsche (or all of them) and makes this discussion moot.
Heck, I could even make a strong argument for Tesla buying BMW
