Porsche’s recent retreat back into the familiar realm of combustion engines raised a question that has been increasingly troubling European car makers: what does premium stand for in an electrified, digital age?
For many automotive planners at the beginning of this decade, electrification was going to be the springboard into a high-tech future where premium customers would pay more for electric rocketships gilded with digital delights.
However, since those heady days of 2021-2022, the pace in that arena hasn’t been set by the high-end European brands but by mainstream Chinese brands, who are selling the dream for a whole lot less.