This is under-appreciated.
Hybrid "range extended" vehicles are a brutal sector, because battery costs fall and densities increase every year, so eventually you're guaranteed to end up with a money-losing product. So you have to race as fast as possible to go from concept to showroom.
Getting a product from idea to finality takes about 7 years, and in that time you're very likely to end up pitched against pure EVs which have similar capabilities and are just cheaper.
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In the past, car makers were also engine makers. Now, with batteries replacing engines as the most advanced part of the car, there is a chance this will decouple.
Tesla makes their own batteries, and Toyota is working on solid state, but companies like CATL do batteries only.
It's quite possible that companies will be forced to choose a lane, either make the best cars and buy the best batteries, or make the best batteries and do nothing else.
If this happens it's going to be a Great Leap Forward for cars and for batteries, because both businesses are going to become a winner-takes-all, very much like CPUs and fabs.
We may see auto-makers being treated more like Intel and AMD, with the public unwilling to give them a second chance if they can't deliver a great product.
Conversely, we may see battery makers treated more like fabs, being forced to ever higher tech in order to squeeze out better performance. With car makers ready to go elsewhere in an instant if they begin to fall behind.
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Caleb James DeLisle
Digital Freedom Foundation