The car industry faces a short-term crisis and long-term decline

EVEN BEFORE the recession, investors were deeply pessimistic about the car industry. Sitting on $1.3trn-worth of legacy investments in factories that rely on a technology that ought to become obsolete—the internal-combustion engine—the likes of Ford, Renault and Volkswagen don’t exactly look well positioned for the 21st century. Now, with car sales collapsing, a dinosaur business that employs 10m people directly faces a moment of truth (see article). Long synonymous with hubris and the inept allocation of capital, it needs to look to the future.