Thing is, there really isn&#x27;t that much differentiation between automobile models. Everything out there is basically a sedan, SUV, or pickup truck (even the Jeep Wrangler is being forced, kicking &amp; screaming, into the SUV form) with little meaningful difference between variants. In &quot;trying as hard as possible to horizontally differentiate from the competition and vertically differentiate to access more segments&quot;, manufacturers are trying <i>really</i> hard to make car-making as hard &amp; difficult &amp; expensive as possible. So back to basics: it&#x27;s not that hard, it&#x27;s a well-understood process with a robust supply chain ... an industry ripe for one company to arise focusing on turning designs into vehicles, without the additional overhead of design &amp; marketing.<p>Insofar as the &quot;flow shop&quot; for car manufacturing &quot;would take an order of magnitude or more investment&quot;, well, we all know one company that <i>does</i> have that kind of cash (!) lying around, and the interest in re-inventing the automotive industry.