20 years ago, China bet big on electric vehicles. Now Western carmakers are feeling the pain

YoungNH/Getty In Germany, Japan and the United States, famous carmakers are in trouble. One reason is intense competition from Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers – and growing public demand for EVs. The automakers who dominated the 20th century have largely failed to shift to electric. Volkswagen was once the biggest carmaker in China. Now it only has a bit part. In June, it announced plans to cut 100,000 jobs worldwide. “We have no chance against this,” admitted Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe…