Electric Cars: A Wide-Open Race

The electric car is likely to emerge as one of the most transformational products of the current era, as important, perhaps, as the personal computer and the Internet. Given the effect of the auto industry on the rest of the economy, mass commercialization of the electric car will fundamentally transform not just that industry but others such as petroleum, electricity generation and distribution, steel, nonferrous materials, and chemicals. By reducing the world's dependence on crude oil, the electric car will reshape the structure of global trade. Importantly too, because electric cars have zero emissions, they also could dramatically reset the debate on global warming.

It's no wonder, then, that observers and analysts are caught up in frenzied discussions about who will win the great green-car race. What makes the contest particularly interesting is the fact that an all-electric car will be the first major new product in which, right from the start, the contestants include companies from not just the developed but also the developing economies. PCs, mobile telecommunications, and Internet services were invented and launched in the West. It was only later that Asian companies such as Lenovo, Bharti Airtel, and Alibaba jumped into these markets.