The Electric-Vehicle Trade Wars Are Here to Stay

If you want evidence that big shifts in industrial and economic history beget conflicts, the past week provided plenty.

The United Auto Workers strike in the US and the European Union’s launch of an investigation into Chinese electric vehicle subsidies may seem like unrelated events. But both reflect angst about carmakers’ pivot away from gas-guzzlers to volt-eaters and the existential questions about competitiveness and labor that come with it. And why things may escalate.