My money is on pure electric brands from China winning. The entrenched western groups have too much inertia, and Tesla will point the way but will get bogged down fighting those other corporations and their own government for sane policies.

Chinese corps will set up EV only marques and allow them to freely attack ICE competitors where it hurts, even if they don't initially rake in high profits, giving them a feel good halo and they'll get sensible long term support from their government.

At the moment Nissan, Hyundai and Mitsubishi are good mid-level electric options and I can see new Chinese entrants sweeping them aside as they take the whole market.

What are some of those new Chinese entrants?

BYD is a battery maker that also does electric cars and buses now. Warren Buffet has invested with them.

Geely have bought Volvo and also make the new hybrid London Taxi, and are trying to make a delivery van platform from it.

> "I'm very curious who will win the race to the middle..."

I know its the not the "race" you're talking about, but the real winners will be the electric power transmission line owners in a market system. Transmission line companies will be the new oil companies...

I could imagine that this isn't just about manufacturing but also emotions. That is, do people want an "exciting" new brand or will owning an Audi, BMW, Mercedes ... stay a status symbol?

Big auto has been doing badge engineering for a very long time, they’re already experts at playing with your emotions.

That's true. In the past, however, they never had to deal with a new competitor as "cool" as Tesla.

Perhaps Shelby Motors or DeLorean Motor Company would have a word on that subject?

> I'm inclined to favor the Big Auto

I tend to agree with you due to manufacturing scales and manufacturing excellence. Tesla still has a long way to catch up.