The Heavyweight and the Hidden Brains
You simply cannot ignore Tesla when discussing this space. I think of them less as a carmaker and more as a massive, vertically integrated industrial machine. Their sheer scale means whatever they do with their manufacturing sets the weather for everyone else. They are the stabilising anchor in this sector, though their large presence hardly eliminates market volatility.
But the company that really catches my eye is Mobileye. Automatic braking and lane-keeping software used to be luxury extras. Now, buyers expect them as standard. Mobileye builds the intelligence layer that makes this possible. The logic is wonderfully simple. If we build more cars, automakers will need more of their software. It is an incredibly clever angle, provided the global rollout continues as governments hope it might.