The fall back to earth just experienced by Quanergy, a maker of solid state lidar devices for self-driving, has widely been attributed to its recent absence from the list of partners working with Daimler for an autonomous commuter service in Silicon Valley. It seems this omission has savaged Quanergy’s valuation, ahead of its planned IPO. This was certainly a set back because Daimler’s biggest brand Mercedes had been Quanergy’s first major customer and partner, starting in 2014 before propelling the company towards an apparently hugely overinflated valuation of $1.5bn. This was followed by the two companies showing a Mercedes E350 sedan outfitted with Quanergy’s lidar devices at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2015. Yet we think…