What is it about electric car making that seems to turn a man's head towards, well, criminal activity? Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman stepped down this year and paid a $15 million fine to settle fraud charges; Carlos Ghosn, chairman of Nissan, was recently fired by the board and is currently cooling his heels in a Japanese prison on charges of understating his renumeration; and Rupert Stadler, Audi's sacked chief executive, is on bail in connection with diesel emissions cheating.

Granted, none of these allegations are linked or similar, but it does seem a bit weird that the first senior car executives to be sacked (and in some cases held in custody) for many, many decades are all involved at the...