By the time they saw it coming, it was almost too late. With the belated realization that the Chinese had indeed overtaken them in the burgeoning electric-vehicle business, the world’s other car-makers descended into doom and gloom. And no one was gloomier than the Americans.
After all, they’d only just gotten with the program. Following decades of reluctance, they had finally begun to embrace battery power, only to watch their president yank the emergency brake on E.V. adoption, leaving the legacy industry several car lengths behind Chinese competitors. Now the only mantra for American car-makers may be: “Catch up or die.”
