It’s The Data, Stupid.

The parable of the EV and the battle for brand differentiation.

In the race for electric vehicles, the competition is heating up. Automakers are scrambling to launch electric cars that have superior performance and all of the latest features. However, as electric cars become increasingly commonplace, performance will become generic — all-electric cars will go fast. The fantastic stories of “ludicrous mode” and “zero to whatever” will become simply a function of the electric motors and will not be a significant differentiating factor in choosing an EV.

The real battle lies in data and autonomous driving technology. This new generation of electric cars requires complex systems that can process large amounts of information to make decisions while driving on roads at high speeds with other vehicles around them. Autonomous electric vehicles must be able to accurately read road signs and traffic signals, recognize pedestrians’ movements, avoid hazards, and even anticipate other drivers’ behaviors if they are to truly revolutionize transportation, with or without a human driver.

This is why automakers are investing heavily in data and artificial intelligence. By leveraging these technologies, electric car makers can provide safer, more efficient vehicles that will help revolutionize the way we drive. But beyond the typical features we typically associated with a car, tomorrow’s car (and you can insert almost any consumer product here) will be differentiated based on technological sophistication — and that’s largely a function of data. And it’s that baseline technological feature that can be laddered up to benefits and values that establish an emotional connection to the product. Companies like Tesla may have a unique advantage here. The edge won’t come from a design or traditional feature but will emerge as a function of the vast data sets generated from the cars on the road today. The “data” advantage is significant for Tesla. So buckle up — we are on the brink of a new era where electric cars become commonplace and performance is no longer a differentiator.

But the story doesn’t end here. The drive for brand differentiation will lead to electric cars that increasingly become personalized experiences for each driver. We may be close to seeing electric vehicles that are as individualized as the person driving them. The Ford Mustang may be transformed into something that is less about a fixed corporate product into a customized expression of your transportation needs.

And that’s a dynamic that we’ll see across consumer products. Refrigerators will tell you when you need to go food and automatically process an order. Curated music will upload to your smartphone as soon as it’s available. And your toothbrush will alert you to a new cavity or even unusual bacteria in your mouth. All these new features (that, over time, will become essential) are driven by data and data analytics. It’s this data-driven common feature doesn’t run on gas, in the traditional sense, but runs even faster on data.