27 July

I talk about EVs so much not because of any fetish for them. But because they’re a window into our culture. Take the Chinese EVs. The true genius of China isn’t in design, they plagiarise most of that from Europeans. Because they’re trying to sell us what they know we like. Their genius is manufacturing. They have far and away the greatest number of tool makers and other manufacturing genius in the world. They can transform an idea into a reality faster than anybody. Other car companies take years to bring a new model to development. You can see that with BYD right now. They’re a juggernaut, rolling out across the entire world at breathtaking speed. And what they do is listen carefully to first reviews, and immediately incorporate feedback into designs. They can transform that feedback into the cars *immediately*. Not in a year or 3 years, with a new model like other car makers. Straight away. The BYD Seal that was for sale in March is different to the one you buy in April. It’s that quick. That’s manufacturing genius.