While high income economies pursued the technological cul-de-sacs of diesel and hybrids, China got on with developing the necessary supply chains and today has a stranglehold on many of the raw materials and components needed for battery powered vehicles. As is now generally agreed, its latest models are far in advance of anything that Europe, Japan and the US produces, and not just in terms of performance and price.
If cars are today as much travelling iPads as vehicles, then China has stolen a march in this area of the technology as well, with models believed by some to be superior in their IT even to Tesla.
Last week, the White House took matters into its own hands and slapped a 100pc tariff on all Chinese EVs in a throwback to similar charges that were imposed on Japanese vehicles by the Reagan administration back in the 1980s.
Coming on top of already very considerable tariffs and other barriers to entry, this is Smoot Hawley-style protectionism and is almost certainly illegal under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules designed to prevent discrimination. Established rules on free trade are once more being tested to destruction by growing superpower rivalry. Whether it was ever possible to have free trade with a country now widely regarded as a hostile power is an interesting question. The US plainly believes not.
For the time being the tariffs shoot at a phantom threat, in that hardly any Chinese EVs are imported into the US market. The decision is instead instructed almost entirely by domestic political considerations. The United Auto Workers are still a powerful force in certain swing states. No one loses votes on a Sinophobic ticket.
But the tariffs also speak to a wider concern about the green transition, which is that if you are going to pursue net zero, you need to carry the voters with you by demonstrating tangible economic benefits.
If many of the transition’s jobs and industries are seen to be going to China, then politically the pursuit of a low carbon future becomes much more difficult.
The last thing the White House wants to see is its near trillion dollar package of green energy tax breaks and subsidies being channelled into Chinese EVs.
In any case, Biden’s tariffs have put the fear of god into Europe’s once mighty auto manufacturers. With the US essentially closed to Chinese EVs, Europe and the UK make an obvious target for China’s excess production.
Made-in-China cars already account for nearly 10pc of the UK market. Publicly, all the big mass market manufacturers say they welcome the competition, but it is plain as a pikestaff that they do not.