EV differential pricing, quantum error correction & biologic kleptomania strategies

Your new Strategy Toolkit newsletter (August 31, 2025)

(1) An EV for every buyer

Strategy in pricing is one of the most fascinating areas to uncover innovation. The ideal is to identify the maximum price any one customer is willing to pay, a degree of personalisation most companies would die for. In the cut-throat market for EVs in China, manufacturers are taking inspiration from the airline industry’s use of dynamic pricing to offer very different prices to distinct segments of customers defined by willingness to pay full price or discounted prices. The results speak for themselves.

“In wars, the methods are sometimes as shocking as the results. Many Chinese manufacturers sell cars cheaply to dealers, who resell them as “used” vehicles, even though they have zero miles on the clock. The ploy, perverse as it sounds, lets carmakers split their market, offering pre-owned but undriven vehicles to price-sensitive customers, and identical, higher-priced vehicles to everyone else.”*

* Anonymous, “Involutionary road,” The Economist (July 5 2025): 56-7; https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/06/30/xi-jinping-wages-war-on-price-wars