If you go look at used car prices you'll see that cars that offer dependability have good value retention. This makes the TCO lower than other gas cars. Toyota is basically the king of that space. They're "surviving" because they're synonymous with no-frills transportation. Even today if you drive long distances, don't have anywhere to charge and want something that'll take you to 100k with just oil and tire changes and is still worth something at the end, you can't really beat a basic Corolla or Camry.

Tesla is stuck with a cylindrical battery supply chain because they built that out. Basically their undoing since their cars are crappy enough where they need to compete on price alone. They give away their margin by buying 3p prismatics for their bottom end offerings. So being first can and does burn you badly.