It's generally rare to see competing car manufacturers openly mock one another's accomplishments, but that has certainly happened now.
Just before the weekend, Volkswagen celebrated a specific milestone through their Chinese SAIC partnership, announcing the first ever production sample of the so-called "range extender". This technology, that will be introduced in a Chinese ID.9 model soon, uses a variable geometry turbocharger to adjust airflow and improve power generation efficiency, as well as other initiatives to reduce production and running emissions.
Volkswagen celebrated this with a photo of all the engineers involved in production, but this was openly mocked by Chinese competitor Li Auto's Social Media Director on Weibo (through Car News China), who wrote the following:
"Congratulations to Volkswagen for successfully mass-producing a technology that is outdated, very environmentally unfriendly, and had little development potential in just 6 years!"
Volkswagen have been criticised for not taking enough decisive steps towards further enhancing EV technology, but a comment so direct still raised eyebrows over the weekend.
What do you think of this kind of language in the car world?