Why western carmakers' retreat from electric risks dooming them to irrelevance

Western automakers are retreating from electric vehicle investments just as Chinese rivals like BYD rapidly gain global market share with affordable, well-made EVs. Experts warn this mirrors Detroit's 1980s failure against Japanese imports, with soaring oil prices from the Iran war further exposing the shortsightedness of recommitting to combustion engines. Companies like Stellantis, Volkswagen, and Ford have written down tens of billions in EV investments, potentially handing China a structural advantage that will be increasingly difficult to reverse.