The original call
Original year: 2017
2026 assessment
Scorecard verdict: Verdict: Hit
Hit. The 2010s and early 2020s produced a wave of new automotive names that simply could not have existed in the combustion era — a swarm of EV startups, and above all a generation of Chinese manufacturers who used the lower electric barrier to entry to go from nowhere to global force. Fewer parts, fewer moving pieces, lower barrier — more entrants. That played out almost exactly as described.