For around a decade now, the automotive industry’s worst-case scenario has kept getting worse, with lowlights ranging from the emissions scandal and its fallout to the pulling forward of electric car mandates by a decade, the ramping up of safety and pollution standards, the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more.
But if you can forgive looking at a much bigger picture through the myopic lens of automotive, the escalating threat of China invading Taiwan has implications that extend far deeper than anything that’s hit so far.
Even the threat of invasion of this island between the East and South China Seas is enough to make your next car cost more – but military action would almost certainly unleash a tide of woe on a scale hitherto unseen.
Most significantly, Taiwan manufactures about 70% of the world’s advanced semiconductors, and while the past 18 months have taught automotive...
