IN a bit of interesting news from my old world this week, Walter Mertl, the chief financial officer of German automobile giant BMW, told Reuters that most of the company s sales growth was coming from electric vehicles (EVs), describing 2023 as a tipping point away from internal combustion engines (ICEs). EVs only accounted for about 15 percent of BMW s total vehicle sales last year, but sales growth in that segment is now faster than for ICE vehicles, a trend that Mertl attributed to tougher environmental regulations and rapidly shifting consumer preferences.