Elon Musk wrote in a blog post saying "We will not initiate patent lawsuits against anyone who, in good faith, wants to use our technology." and "It is impossible for Tesla to build electric cars fast enough to address the carbon crisis."
The new, almost open source policy takes effect immediately.
This is nothing new. Kit cars have been around for years. Its really just a new way of cross platform engineering, and in most cases its a fail due to poor research and development. So I wouldn't get too excited about it. Cars are only as good as the amount of R&D and material quality put into them. Hence why most cars are more expensive then others. Iv driven a couple of Teslas both on track and roads, they have there ups and downs but mostly downs due to poor R&D and experience in the industry.
But as to the whole electric car thing, Its just not the answer. Sure most of your major manufactures now have there battery power cars, but its not there main focus. Remember energy can never be created or destroyed so most manufactures are more concentrating on energy conversion not energy storage. Hydrogen fuel cell and kinetic energy recovery technology is the key focus for Mazda Nissan and Honda. It don't mean I hate electric cars, its just there recharge time isn't justified by the mileage. And the size of the batteries makes it impossible to have a swap and go technique to be available.
But if you really want to see what a battery powered car should be take a look at the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive and Audi's R8 e-tron.