How will Ford's announcement to invest 4.5 billion USD in electric vehicles affect Tesla Motors?

Ford’s investment in electric vehicles (“EVs”) will only make Tesla look smarter.
Ask yourself these questions:
[1] Will Ford have a nationwide network of publically available chargers that can recharge a vehicle's battery in minutes?
[2] Will Ford be investing some of these billions in a battery gigafactory?
[3] Will the price, design and range of a Ford electric vehicle be attractive enough to be the purchase of choice of today's BMW, Mercedes, Lexus and other high end automobiles?
I suspect that none of these answers will be yes. And yet, Ford has a decade of experience seeing Tesla go from zero to one of the most watched automobile manufacturers on the planet.
[1] Vehicle Charging
People who buy any vehicle expect that they will be able to refuel their vehicle away from home in a reasonable amount of time and obtain a reasonable travel range. Tesla built it’s battery recharge network to be everywhere and to charge quickly.
What is the Ford plan for EV charging? Continuation of limited range EVs using a shared network of charging stations that charge slowly. And as of today, mostly unbuilt.
[2] Batteries
Ford cannot be successful in the near term because the batteries for volume production won’t exist. The single Tesla gigafactory will produce enough batteries for 500,000 vehicles annually. A production volume equal to all other lithium-ion battery production in place worldwide just a couple of years ago.
Tesla is building battery capacity for volume production. Ford has no equivalent.
[3] Vehicle design
The Ford Fusion EV looks like any random car.
While Tesla vehicles push the boundaries of design to attract discerning buyers.
What we have seen from existing manufacturers is a tinkering of the Internal Combustion Engine (“ICE”) platform often simply modifying existing vehicles. No design reflecting the unique configuration opportunities that an electric offers. First picture below is the Ford Fusion EV Dash and the second is the Tesla Model 3:
Ford is firmly planted in the 1960s and Tesla in the 21st century.
The Ford plan, besides being opaque, seems lackluster, slow and at best a ‘follower’. No leadership here.
But the Ford plan certainly shows the vision and foresight of Tesla.
Which is a shame for Ford. It could and can do better. And frankly, duplicating Tesla could be done for free. Rapid investment in a quality forward looking program would make Ford ‘exciting’ and raise the price of it’s stock far in excess of any investment. A big win for shareowners. Exactly what happened to Tesla and the price of it’s stock.

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Question inspired by: 
http://fortune.com/2015/12/10/ford-electric-vehicles-investment/

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Originally Posted on Quora.com 2017 08 02: https://www.quora.com/How-will-Fords-announcement-to-invest-4-5-billion-USD-in-electric-vehicles-affect-Tesla-Motors/answer/Bob-Reisner

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