Shiny Toys and False Gods

Is the Auto Industry Out of Step with EV Adoption?

Every other week, it seems another hypercar or supercar is unveiled. Headline-grabbing performance. Zero to 60 in under three seconds. Top speeds no human could legally use outside of a racetrack.

And yet, am I the only one who looks at these launches and thinks: what’s the point?

Yes, the engineering is astonishing. The design teams and powertrain experts who build these machines are some of the brightest minds in the industry. But there’s an uncomfortable truth: all of this brilliance is being poured into projects that make little to no difference to EV adoption, or the mass market.

The Trickle-Down Myth

We’re told the point of these hypercars is to “push the boundaries” and that the tech will eventually “trickle down” into the cars the rest of us actually drive. But let’s be honest: how often does that really happen in any meaningful way? And when it does, it takes years the industry doesn’t have and usually arrives with a price tag that makes even the “affordable” models feel like luxury goods.

Meanwhile, families are still waiting for the EV that ticks all the boxes: affordable, practical, stylish, fits two kids and a dog, and doesn’t require a second mortgage. The problem I see is, while designers and aerodynamicists pour all their creativity into shaping million-dollar toys that all end up looking like clones from the same wind tunnel, the consumer-market EVs – you know, the ones that could actually drive mass adoption, are left bland, forgettable, and uninspired.

If the auto industry really wants EVs to succeed, it needs to flip the equation: stop treating hypercars as shrines to innovation and start putting the same design courage and engineering brilliance into cars ordinary people might actually buy. Because right now, the wrong end of the market is getting all the brains and beauty, while the cars that matter most are getting the scraps of what’s leftover.

Out of Step with Reality

Right now, the world is in turmoil. We’re living through a cost-of-living crisis. Governments are mandating zero emissions timelines. Sustainability is top of every OEM’s strategic agenda.

And yet, against this backdrop, the industry rolls out another multi-million-pound vanity project. To me, these launches feel gratuitously out of step. Almost in bad taste.

It’s like watching extremely wealthy people flaunt their material assets while the rest of us are told to tighten our belts. And the worst part? The media and comms machine package it all as aspirational, feeding us hypercars like opium for the masses.

But it’s not just hypercars. Even brands that positioned themselves as ‘accessible luxury’ are falling into the same trap. Look at Polestar, once heralded as a serious EV contender, now issuing a going concern warning with its stock in freefall. Why? Because it pursued the $70k+ luxury EV dream while the market was crying out for affordability. Consumers are turning toward hybrids. Meanwhile, Chinese OEMs are already winning the sub-$30k EV battle, not just in China, but increasingly in Europe too.

For years, Western OEMs dismissed the threat. There was an assumption that ‘Chinese quality’ wouldn’t resonate with buyers in Europe or the US. But that arrogance has been shattered: today’s Chinese EVs are not only affordable, they’re competent, well-equipped, and increasingly design-led. And in a world where household budgets are under pressure, price matters more than prestige.

Polestar is just the latest false god to topple – proof that you can’t worship design prestige and luxury narratives while ignoring the economic reality of consumers.

Vanity vs. Value

Here’s the reality: hypercars and luxury EVs exist because they’re sexy. Engineers love to work on them. Media love to write about them. Investors like the headlines.

And I want to be clear – I’m not against hypercars themselves. They’re feats of engineering brilliance, and there’s a place for them in the industry. But the problem comes when they’re disproportionately worshipped, treated as if they are the answer, rather than what they are: shiny toys for a tiny sliver of the market.

That’s where they have become false gods. We elevate them as symbols of progress, when in reality, they do little to solve the core challenges of adoption, affordability, and sustainability. And until those are solved, EV adoption will remain slower than policymakers and consumers need it to be.

My Final Thought

I’m not blind to the brilliance that goes into hypercars. The engineering talent is extraordinary. But I can’t shake the feeling that, in 2025, with political turmoil, cost-of-living crises, sustainability targets, and OEMs under pressure to deliver real-world solutions – these vanity projects feel gratuitously out of step.

The industry keeps building shrines to false gods – hypercars, luxury EVs, and prestige projects – while the real work of making EV adoption viable for millions is left wanting.

Maybe I’m being too cynical. Maybe I’m missing something. So here’s my challenge to you: tell me why I’m wrong. What’s the real purpose of this hypercar arms race? How does it move the industry forward?

I’d genuinely love to hear it.