Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future

The historical part completely misses the first boom of EV from 1890s to 1910s besides mentioning that they existed.

The history of those is the big untold story here.

It doesn't help if you're betting on the right tech too early.

Clearly superior in theory, but lacking significant breakthroughs in battery reasearch and general spottyness of electrification in that era.

Tons of Electric Vehicle companies existed to promote that comparably tech.

Instead the handful of combustion engine companies drove everyone else out of the market eventually, not last gasoline was marketed as more manly.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/aug/03/lost-hist...

Yep. Too early is as bad as too late. The EV was invented but the supporting technology wasn't there.

Lots of ideas that failed in the first dotcom boom in the late 1990s are popular and successful today but weren't able to find a market at the time.

This reminds me of Mary Anderson [0], who invented the windshield wiper so early that her patent expired by the time Cadillac made them standard equipment.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anderson_(inventor)