To The Moon!, page-33

Sony is getting into the electric car market, unveiling a snazzy-looking concept vehicle that combines its blockbuster entertainment portfolio with a battery and some wheels. Amazon is backing a new range of electric vans from Stellantis, the company formed from the merger between Chrysler and Fiat. Mercedes announced plans for a battery-powered car with a 600-mile (965 kilometres) range.

In the background, Apple is lurking with its own plans for the market, and Tesla is hardly going to be short of the financial muscle to beef up its own range. The two things we know for sure about the market for electric vehicles is that it is booming, and also that it is getting very, very crowded.

In truth, it is about to turn into a bloodbath. Lots and lots of big companies with very deep pockets are about to throw a ton of money at the industry, and so are the venture capital firms. A problem? Not really. Sure, some money will be lost. But it will also mean consumers have a lot more choice; the development of the technology will be rapidly accelerated. Boom-and-bust investment cycles get a bad press - but this is one we should be celebrating.

At this rate, a few more billions of investment dollars will be thrown at the electric vehicle market before the end of January. Every week seems to bring more competitors into the market.

Is that something we should be worried about? Not really. True, some investors are going to lose a lot of cash. Sony might never get a single yen back of the money it has spent on its prototype, and neither might Apple. Plenty of the VC-backed start-ups will be remembered only by a handful of vintage EV collectors some time in the 2080s, while Mercedes might well find that no one really wants to drive 600 miles without stopping for a coffee and a charge-up. For the rest of us, however, massive over-investment in the sector is great news. Here’s why.

Investment bubbles are usually criticised, especially on the business pages. And no one would deny that they have their downsides. Capital is wasted, time is spent on failed projects, and investors get caught up in the hype and end up losing a lot of money. And yet a simple fact remains. They are also a great engine of progress