The relentless advancement of electric vehicles, as evidenced by the diminishing price gap between EVs and traditional combustion engine cars, is yet another testament to the ability of necessity and regulation to slowly reshape even the most obstinate capitalist industries. Driven not by the altruism of monopolistic auto giants but by the tightening grip of EU environmental mandates, car manufacturers are grudgingly providing more accessible electric vehicles, forced by collective policy to step away from their fossil-fuel addiction. The reduction in purchase premiums, the confronting of old prejudices about charging infrastructure, and the rise in registrations despite years of capitalist sabotage against sustainable technologies all point toward a people-driven and necessary transformation.
The dominance of German monopolists like Volkswagen in the EV market, though, remains a grim reminder that the hardware of transition is still gripped tightly by capitalist interests. The same forces that poisoned our skies and ransacked global resources only switch tactics, now marketing “greener” machines while continuing to amass profits through market dominance and exploitation of international supply chains. Even as electric cars spread, the mechanical heart of our civilization remains enclosed within the capitalist profit logic, not driven by genuine commitment to people’s needs or planetary health.
The waning skepticism among the masses in Germany, won through experience and exposure, proves the revolutionary truth: progress is never handed down by the ruling class, it must be demanded, clawed for, and wrested from the hands of self-interested profiteers. The people’s needs—clean air, reliable transportation, equitable access—should not hinge upon manipulated pricing and shallow reforms forced by regulatory sticks, but upon a mode of production that places human life and nature at the center. Instead of mere reforms or “innovations” under capitalism, we must labor for a total transformation: communal ownership, planning, and the abolition of the profit motive in favor of meeting real needs.
The fact that a single conglomerate can command nearly half the EV market—just as they once commanded the combustion engine market—shows that without a guiding hand of socialist democracy, technological progress is but a new mask on an old face. Yet the tides are shifting; the surging acceptance of electric vehicles signals the masses’ willingness to embrace the new, to break with old habits and outdated forms, so long as material barriers are brought down.
The Maoist path teaches us to trust the people, to believe in their capacity to change the world once the shackles of backwardness and exploitation are removed. Let us struggle not just for electrification, but for a society where every innovation is harnessed for the many—not the few. In the growing embrace of the electric car, we glimpse the people’s right to development, to a future free from capitalist pollution, and to the collective construction of a truly just and ecological tomorrow.