Pioneers are also needed among buyers
The automobile developed into a means of transport suitable for the masses, not least because of inventive designers with a great deal of dedication and courage. However, these car manufacturers would not have got very far if it had not been for the pioneering people who bought these first relatively primitive means of transportation, and for not exactly small sums of money. If there hadn't been a few well-heeled interested parties for the Benz "Velo" or the first car experiments by Panhard or De Dion Bouton, then further development towards the ever more comfortable and perfect automobile would probably have been much slower, if at all.
Between the last years of the 19th century and the first three decades of the 20th century, the automobile made a huge technological leap forward. Engines, brakes, steering and suspensions - everything got much better and eventually even the importance of aerodynamics was recognized. And comfort was also improved.
Today, of course, we are in a completely different situation, but we still need pioneers in modern times who are enthusiastic about new technologies and, for example, buy the first hydrogen cars or battery-powered electric vehicles. And just like 120 or so years ago, these investments are only likely to be sustainable to a limited extent, as the technology is improving rapidly. Who will want to buy a used car in a few years' time with lithium-ion batteries, which are highly dangerous and difficult to degrade, when there will be solid-state batteries and graphene-based energy storage systems, for example, which can be charged faster and have a higher energy density. It may well be that in 10 or 12 years' time, a Tesla Model S will seem as outdated to people as a Benz patent motor car did to the people of the Roaring Twenties. But if nobody bought today's electric cars up to and including the electric hyper sports cars, then development would probably progress much more slowly.
