How the West Lost the Automotive Industry - CleanTechnica

The article "How the West Lost the Automotive Industry" by David Waterworth and Paul Wildman argues that Western countries—particularly Japan, Germany, France, and the USA—have already lost their dominance in the global automotive industry, especially in electric vehicles (EVs). The authors attribute this decline to a combination of hubris, lack of customer commitment, and a profit-first mentality that underestimated China’s industrial and technological rise. Western automakers initially profited from the Chinese market through joint ventures, which facilitated technology transfer to China. Over time, China leveraged this knowledge to develop sophisticated EVs and manufacturing capabilities, now challenging and surpassing Western automakers in innovation and production scale. The article highlights China’s rapid progress, exemplified by companies like BYD, which plans to sell nearly 2 million battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in 2025—far outpacing Toyota’s 0.1 million BEVs despite Toyota’s much longer history in car manufacturing. Western responses have included protection