Writing in the Fifties, the critic Roland Barthes compared the Citroën DS, a masterpiece of French car design, to the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Both, he said, were “the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population… as a purely magical object”. A touch facetious, perhaps, but the analogy captures something of the importance of car making to European society. Though the principles of automotive production came from the American Henry Ford, modern Europe was built around its combination of industrial prowess, mass employment and desirable consumer goods.
How BYD seduced Europe
