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The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future
The Great Race recounts the story of a century-long battle between automakers for market share, profit, and technological dominance—and a race to build the car of the future.
The world’s great manufacturing juggernaut—the $2 trillion automotive industry—is in the throes of a revolution. Its future will include cars Henry Ford and Karl Benz could scarcely have imagined. They will drive themselves, won’t consume oil, and will come in radical shapes and sizes. But the path to that future is fraught. The top contenders are two traditional manufacturing giants, the United States and Japan, and a newcomer, China.
Team America has a powerful and little known weapon in its arsenal: a small group of technology buffs and regulators from California. The story of why and how these men and women could shape the future—how you move, how you work, how you live on earth—is an unexpected tale filled with unforgettable characters: a scorned chemistry professor, a South African visionary who went for broke, an ambitious Chinese expat, a quixotic Japanese nuclear engineer, and a string of billion-dollar wagers by governments and corporations.
Tillemann’s account is incisive and riveting. It explains how America bounced back in this global contest and what it will take to command the industrial future.
The world’s great manufacturing juggernaut—the $2 trillion automotive industry—is in the throes of a revolution. Its future will include cars Henry Ford and Karl Benz could scarcely have imagined. They will drive themselves, won’t consume oil, and will come in radical shapes and sizes. But the path to that future is fraught. The top contenders are two traditional manufacturing giants, the United States and Japan, and a newcomer, China.
Team America has a powerful and little known weapon in its arsenal: a small group of technology buffs and regulators from California. The story of why and how these men and women could shape the future—how you move, how you work, how you live on earth—is an unexpected tale filled with unforgettable characters: a scorned chemistry professor, a South African visionary who went for broke, an ambitious Chinese expat, a quixotic Japanese nuclear engineer, and a string of billion-dollar wagers by governments and corporations.
Tillemann’s account is incisive and riveting. It explains how America bounced back in this global contest and what it will take to command the industrial future.
353 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 20, 2015
15 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 9, 2015
I read this aloud to DH. We caught a televised interview with the author, Levi Tillemann ( http://www.c-span.org/video/?324270-1... ) and found him to be very articulate and knowledgeable as an advocate for switching to all-electric vehicles in the future.
DH and I have both worked in the automotive industry and the nuclear power industry, and our daughter is currently a manager at Tesla Motors, so everything in here was of great interest to us. It’s not a foregone conclusion to us, as native Detroiters, that electric vehicles (EVs) are a panacea for environmental and climate concerns, but Tillemann takes this as a given, and heads his reader down the path of how we got where we are, and how to get where we want to go.
First you get an extensive history of the development of the automobile, and it’s not confined to the US alone. There isn’t a lot about European autos, but I found the background of automotive development in Japan and China gave me a more fleshed out view than I had had as a Detroit native.
Second, California and its Air Resources Board (CARB -- the bete noire of Detroit) played a heroic role in creating industrial policy that forced international technology development to cleaner and ultimately ZEV (zero tailpipe emission) vehicles. A lot of the development of the new technologies was done by Japanese auto companies Toyota, Honda and Nissan, which took CARB at its word rather than fighting the standards as the Detroit automakers had done. Nissan was about to be euthanized by the Japanese government before it leapt in front of its competitors with its all-electric LEAF. The devastating accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear power installation in 2011 has currently put the Japanese goal of EV dominance in that nation on a questionable footing.
Third, the shining star of American electric vehicle technology is not a Detroit product, but once again, resides in California. Tesla Motors and its visionary founder Elon Musk get well-deserved kudos from Tillemann for building an excellent vehicle that is also all electric. Tesla is also a big player in the ZEV credit economy that has developed in California.
Meanwhile, in China, with its lack of petroleum resources and horrible air pollution, leaders bought into the idea that they could leapfrog intermediate automotive technology and require all their national auto companies to develop electric vehicles. Sometimes central planning and dictated industrial policy can work out for the best, but in this case, the moving parts of an EV economy in China were not well-thought-out nor integrated. The national leaders who had conceived the leap are realizing that China needs its own kind of transportation solution, and the process of designing and building it is still in flux.
Tillemann wraps up his tome with visions of the future: decarbonization of the global economy; autonomous, driverless cars; platooned highway travel; and vehicles that are not privately owned, but arrive at your doorstep to whisk you to your destination, then go and park themselves to await a call from the next user. He advocates strongly for a coherent but flexible industrial policy in the US so that technology development can be steered in the direction of EVs without stifling innovation. And he names as the "winner" of the Great Race, "not only Americans, Japanese, and Chinese, but all of humanity and life on earth itself."
DH and I have both worked in the automotive industry and the nuclear power industry, and our daughter is currently a manager at Tesla Motors, so everything in here was of great interest to us. It’s not a foregone conclusion to us, as native Detroiters, that electric vehicles (EVs) are a panacea for environmental and climate concerns, but Tillemann takes this as a given, and heads his reader down the path of how we got where we are, and how to get where we want to go.
First you get an extensive history of the development of the automobile, and it’s not confined to the US alone. There isn’t a lot about European autos, but I found the background of automotive development in Japan and China gave me a more fleshed out view than I had had as a Detroit native.
Second, California and its Air Resources Board (CARB -- the bete noire of Detroit) played a heroic role in creating industrial policy that forced international technology development to cleaner and ultimately ZEV (zero tailpipe emission) vehicles. A lot of the development of the new technologies was done by Japanese auto companies Toyota, Honda and Nissan, which took CARB at its word rather than fighting the standards as the Detroit automakers had done. Nissan was about to be euthanized by the Japanese government before it leapt in front of its competitors with its all-electric LEAF. The devastating accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima nuclear power installation in 2011 has currently put the Japanese goal of EV dominance in that nation on a questionable footing.
Third, the shining star of American electric vehicle technology is not a Detroit product, but once again, resides in California. Tesla Motors and its visionary founder Elon Musk get well-deserved kudos from Tillemann for building an excellent vehicle that is also all electric. Tesla is also a big player in the ZEV credit economy that has developed in California.
Meanwhile, in China, with its lack of petroleum resources and horrible air pollution, leaders bought into the idea that they could leapfrog intermediate automotive technology and require all their national auto companies to develop electric vehicles. Sometimes central planning and dictated industrial policy can work out for the best, but in this case, the moving parts of an EV economy in China were not well-thought-out nor integrated. The national leaders who had conceived the leap are realizing that China needs its own kind of transportation solution, and the process of designing and building it is still in flux.
Tillemann wraps up his tome with visions of the future: decarbonization of the global economy; autonomous, driverless cars; platooned highway travel; and vehicles that are not privately owned, but arrive at your doorstep to whisk you to your destination, then go and park themselves to await a call from the next user. He advocates strongly for a coherent but flexible industrial policy in the US so that technology development can be steered in the direction of EVs without stifling innovation. And he names as the "winner" of the Great Race, "not only Americans, Japanese, and Chinese, but all of humanity and life on earth itself."
November 12, 2018
Full disclosure: I know the author, and have known him for over a decade.
An impressive entry-level book, Tillemann manages to weave an entertaining narrative around what to most readers would be a dry topic: the development of electric vehicles that will, hopefully, gradually take over from fossil fuel consuming cars that populate contemporary roads. IN doing so, Tillemann focuses his narrative on three "contenders" in the race to set the standards and dominate the market of the future. The United States (which itself becomes a California vs. Detroit and Washington), Japan and China. Tillemann focuses on the individual level as much as possible, and this is where the topic becomes engaging. This is not to say that TIllemann is unbiased in his narrative. Far from it. The author give sample admiration to Californian innovators and regulators to force established automakers to adapt environmentally friendly standards. On more than a few occasions (and, of course, not without appropriate cause) the big three automakers come off as antagonists in this story.
While the anecdotes and history behind failed attempts to develop a battery-powered car are worth the price for the book, Tillemann includes in the narrative a fascinating case study of the limits of China to develop systemically complex institutions and incentives to develop the clean car, despite the presence of a top-down system that has every incentive to create the EV car of the future. Put short, Tillemann tells us why Tesla grew in the United States, and the Prius sprang from Toyota, but no such competitor has yet come form China. For those following the Chinese economy, this might be the best feature of the book.
An impressive entry-level book, Tillemann manages to weave an entertaining narrative around what to most readers would be a dry topic: the development of electric vehicles that will, hopefully, gradually take over from fossil fuel consuming cars that populate contemporary roads. IN doing so, Tillemann focuses his narrative on three "contenders" in the race to set the standards and dominate the market of the future. The United States (which itself becomes a California vs. Detroit and Washington), Japan and China. Tillemann focuses on the individual level as much as possible, and this is where the topic becomes engaging. This is not to say that TIllemann is unbiased in his narrative. Far from it. The author give sample admiration to Californian innovators and regulators to force established automakers to adapt environmentally friendly standards. On more than a few occasions (and, of course, not without appropriate cause) the big three automakers come off as antagonists in this story.
While the anecdotes and history behind failed attempts to develop a battery-powered car are worth the price for the book, Tillemann includes in the narrative a fascinating case study of the limits of China to develop systemically complex institutions and incentives to develop the clean car, despite the presence of a top-down system that has every incentive to create the EV car of the future. Put short, Tillemann tells us why Tesla grew in the United States, and the Prius sprang from Toyota, but no such competitor has yet come form China. For those following the Chinese economy, this might be the best feature of the book.
October 27, 2019
Dated even 4 years later. Good historical account of auto development, especially the EV car
May 8, 2025
Learned a lot about the history of the car and the EV
August 29, 2015
The Great Race is an easy read on the topic of the pursuit of the future of the automotive industry, focused almost exclusively on electrification. Throughout the book, Levi Tillemann combines the tales of business, engineering, and political decisions that created the current state of the automotive industry.
May 8, 2015
Great Read!
This book gives great insight into the history and future of our love-affair with the automobile. And it does it in a very entertaining way, rich with insider facts regarding the people, the technology, the politics, and the influence of events. Highly recommended.
This book gives great insight into the history and future of our love-affair with the automobile. And it does it in a very entertaining way, rich with insider facts regarding the people, the technology, the politics, and the influence of events. Highly recommended.
June 18, 2015
well written overview of the next lifestyle changing event for our planet, specifically how the combination of electric vehicles, car sharing, and clean/smart energy production/management will finally end our car centric world.
February 8, 2016
Levi is an extraordinary thinker and visionary, so I am eager to read his thought on the future of our automotive industry.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews