The great race: the global quest for the car of the future

Introduction

The Great Race

State and Market in the Age of Carbon

Rules of the Road

Market Failure and the Man on a Horse

Billions of Cars

Organization of Contents

Part I. Keeping Pace

1. The New Emperor and Wan Gang's Eco-Wonderland

Leapfrogging leviathans

A Brief History of the Global Automobile

Winning the Race

2. California Rules: How One State Began a Global Technology Revolution

The Desolation of Smog

The Reformation: CARB's New Doctrine of Principled Extremism

Technology Forcing "Impossible" Standards

Competing Goods

3. Japan's Strategic Capitalism

M1TI and the Japanese Miracle

Japan Outclassed

Picking Winners

Toyota

Nissan

Sonno Joi: Kicking Out the Barbarians

A "Bulwark" in the East

Unbearable Retreat

Sayonara, Uncle Sam: Ejecting the Americans, Again

Go West

MITI's Strategic Retreat

4. The Audacity of Honda

"The Fighting Spirit Is My Nature"

The Isle of Man TT

Muskie and the "Market Defect"

The Race to Clean

Trial and Tenor

Blood in the Water: The Battle of 1976

"Protectionist Trickery"?

5. Sudden Impact

From Darwin to Adelaide

Getting the Impact Out of the Chute

Proof of Concept

Nobody Paid Any Attention: Methanol, Natural Gas, and ZEVs

A Matter of Perspective

6. CARB's Long Reach

Detroit Was King

"No Plan B": Commercializing Electric Vehicles

California and Japan

Toyota's Moon Shot

The Curious Case of Honda

Trees Emit More Pollution than Hondas

Defending the Mandate

7. The Electric Car Is Dead, Long Live the Electric Car

Who Killed the Electric Car?

The Culprits

8. Catching China's Eye

Revolutionary Road

Leapfrog: Revolutions, Refugees, and the Education of Wan Gang

Shame for Glory

Part II. Leapfrog

9. Sea Turtles, Spaceships, and the Hydrogen Economy

Hearts and Minds

Freedom from Electricity

Wan Gang and His Sea Turtles

Keeping Up Appearances

863's Wild Ride

Finding "Some Alternative"

10. Crozy Anegawa

The Long Shadow of Fukushima

Cars, Trucks, and Boats

On the Ropes: Japan's EV Industry After California

The "Two Bests": Toppling Toyota and Honda

Searching for Hercules in Japan

A "Halo Car"

EVs Within Reach

The Dream Machines

Convening the Mandarins

Into the Mainstream

Not Quite First: Nissan Joins the Fray

NEC: Subaru's Heartbreaker

11. I'll Be Back: California Returns

Clean Cars (aka Pavley)

Iron Man 1

Iron Man 2

12. Challenging the Big Green Monster

Bush-Whacked

Part III. Three Crises

13. "Scared Shitless": America's Industrial Implosion

The Lehman Shock

Washington's Cool Response

Electroshock Therapy

"Is This for Real?"

14. Dark Green: Money, Power, and the Stimulus Melee

Team Obama Returns the "Punt"

Dispensing the Stimulus

The "New Industrial Policy" of the Obama Administration

Lifesaver, Pork Barrel, Treasure Chest

The Big Three

Venture Capital Groups and Portfolio Companies

AsEasyasA123

No "Perpetual Motion Machines"

200,000 Cars

"Halftime in America"

15. Cataclysm: The Demons of Fukushima

Acts of God and Man

Japan's Backyard

"What the Hell Is Going On?"

The Twisted Myth of Absolute Safety

The Torch Is Passed

The "China Threat"

Still Waters Run Deep

16. Lucky Eights: China's Olympic Scramble and Economic Noncrisis

The Olympic Scramble

"10 Cities, 1,000 Vehicles"

"A Huge Package"

17. China's Crisis of Competence

The Mountains Are Tall and the Emperor Is Far Away

Drilling Down into the SEVIA: The Case of CNOOC

Divine Power: Iishen

Keyi Power

State Grid

A "Team" of Rivals

The Beijing Electric Vehicle Company

Shenzhen's "Edison": The Case of BYD

Foreigners

Once Again, Behind the Times

18. The Great Race

The Money Factor

A House Divided

Bad Karma

Tesla's Compulsive Visionary

California's Dream Comes True

A King Without a Kingdom

China's "Great Leap" Lands Mat

"We Can't Compete with Tesla"

And the Winner Is…

19. Afterword: The Lost Lap

Go Farther

Beyond Petroleum?

Secure Energy

A Force Multiplier for Renewable

No Strings

A Better Mousetrap

A Bright, Bumpy Road

To Each According to His Needs?

Why Drive, When You Can Surf?

The New Race: The Pizza Man Cometh

Driving Blind

Sit Back, Relax, Enjoy the Ride

When 2+2=10

Transformation

Endgame

Select Bibliography

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Photo Credits