The “Forever Car”: Why Longevity Is the Luxury Advantage Against Chinese EVs
“In a world racing towards even more disposability, permanence is luxurious.”
In my previous article, I argued that the “Quartz Crisis” that reshaped the Swiss watch industry offers a blueprint for how legacy automakers can survive, and even thrive, as Chinese EVs remake the global car market. I made the case that legacy brands should lean into their heritage, move upmarket, and treat ICE not as a liability but as an emotional asset.
There is one dimension of that argument worth expanding: longevity.
A high-end mechanical watch can cost as much as a very exotic car, yet it can last multiple lifetimes with proper servicing; that comparison is not trivial. If a luxury watch is worth five or six figures because it endures, then what does it say about luxury car pricing for a vehicle that is expected to depreciate to scrap within a few decades at most?
The Swiss Watch Strategy: Why Legacy Automakers Must Pivot To It Now…Or Be Crushed By Chinese EVs
The current regulatory approach attempts to achieve this by prescribing a particular drivetrain mix, but what if it just mandated a target? This raises a strategic question: what if, in the long-term, legacy automakers simply ceded the mass market entirely to China?
What if, instead of diluting themselves across a broad, value-sensitive product portfolio, they concentrated on what they do best, and have done since their inception: selling emotion at a premium?
The Next 100 Years Of Motorsport: What Will Racing Look Like In 2125?
It always strikes me how quaint the past now looks. When Alfa Romeo won that first Grand Prix, the cars were front-engined, had no aerodynamics, rode on narrow tires, and their steering wheels were decades away from a single button, let alone screens, microchips, or multi-function displays.
If you could show those drivers a modern F1 car, they’d assume it was built by aliens.
Even beyond F1, imagine the participants of the first 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923 trying to comprehend a Ferrari 499P, a Peugeot 9X8, or any prototype from today’s WEC and IMSA grids.
And so the question is obvious:
If the last 75 years turned simple race cars into machines that resemble spacecraft, what might the next 100 years bring?
The Vaucher Analytics State of Motorsport 2025: The WEC and IMSA
Endurance racing doesn’t dominate global motorsport conversation the way Formula 1 does, but in 2025 it delivered something arguably more impressive: sustained, organic growth across multiple continents and two major rulebooks; indeed, although WEC and IMSA now operate within a broadly shared prototype ecosystem, they’re still distinct products with different audiences, commercial structures, and internal priorities.
Nevertheless, their shared success comes from a phenomenal on-track product, showcasing multi-class action, manufacturer storytelling, and the kind of racing purists swear by. And crucially, unlike some other series, WEC and IMSA genuinely seem to understand what they are and how they appeal to people.
But beneath that success, three separate fault lines began to emerge in 2025. Each one matters not because endurance racing is struggling (it isn’t), but because the future depends on navigating these issues without breaking the momentum the sport has finally built.