5 ms·
I'd love to agree with you, but major European car manufacturers have excellent relationships with the EU and the national governments and they will lobby whate
by nedsma 10y ago
I'd love to agree with you, but major European car manufacturers have excellent relationships with the EU and the national governments and they will lobby whatever is necessary to keep their industries running.
Even though there are initiatives to sell only electric cars in Germany by 2030, I doubt this is going to happen. The switch from ICE powered cars to electric ones is being observed with great uncertainty as the car industry keeps warning the public that the eventual switch is not going to come without losing jobs since it's apparently simpler to manufacture electric cars.
And the average German employee (Arbeitnehmer) who accidentally happens to work in the automobile sector will not be considering buying an electric car for the fear that it might cost him the employment.
German automakers actually worry about the trends in the US, the southeast Asia & China, and it's realistic to expect that their image/sale numbers is going to suffer if they don't offer viable electric cars and not unpractical and expensive concept cars.
At home, their power is unrivaled.
- ff10 10y agoDo you have any evidence that buying an electric car is costing an automobile employee the employment? Provocatively: If I would buy an i3 while working at BMW I might lose my job?
- doczoidberg 10y agothis statement is wrong. Nobody buys EVs because they are not an alternative yet. However this may change in 3-8 years. And then there will be german automakers with the best EVs in the world.
- ff10 10y agoThe i3 is a fantastic alternative for short to medium range already.
- doczoidberg 10y agono. It's still too expensive.
- ff10 10y agoOkay, I can see that. One could then argue that Tesla is too expensive as well. From that I'd say that high premium EVs are too expensive in general.
- cobookman 10y agoNot when you look at the used car market or lease options. Here's an article describing how you can get one for 130/month on lease: http://leasehackr.com/blog/2015/11/8/californians-lease-a-bmw-i3-for-about-100month-0-down-yes-really http://leasehackr.com/blog/2015/11/8/californians-lease-a-bm...
- Tepix 10y agoHowever the Model 3 will beat it on range. Most people think they need the range (even if they don't). Plus BMW doesn't have a Supercharger network.
- ff10 10y agoThat might change until the 3 is being delivered in Europe. BMW has a network called ChargeNow or something. However, it is not sufficiently large yet.
- nedsma 10y agoTry different perspective: if in the next decade German automakers don't make an electric car(s) for the masses, while at the same time it becomes very convenient buying one, would the German employee who still works in the car industry (that, BTW has continued relying heavily on ICE cars) consider buying an electric car from Tesla or Nissan/Toyota that is clean, has great millage and costs a fraction to maintain?
- flexie 10y agoThey will face tougher times if they have to rely on their home market. They are already operating on razor thin margins as it is. Nokia, Ericsson, Siemens, Alcatel were large, and valued EU companies producing cell phones. Where was the EU when the iPhone happened? Luckily, EU stayed out of it.
- lispm 10y ago> They will face tougher times if they have to rely on their home market. They don't do that. > They are already operating on razor thin margins as it is. Porsche's profit margin is over 16%, BMW at 8.5%, Mercedes at 11.4%, Audi at 6.9%.
- wibr 10y agoThat's just not true, especially the part about warning the public and people fearing to lose jobs over buying electric cars. Sounds completely made up to me.
- nedsma 10y agoSources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/report-vw-sees-electric-car-shift-costing-thousands-of-jobs/2016/10/28/94204016-9d29-11e6-b552-b1f85e484086_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/report-vw-sees-elect... Speaking of the fears: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/studie-was-den-deutschen-am-meisten-angst-macht-a-785102.html http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/studie-was-den-deu....
- wibr 10y agoMaybe Germans are afraid of many things, but none of those listed things in the article have something to do the buying electric vehicles. Regarding "warning the public", from your statement I would have assumed a larger effort than simply mentioning a possible loss of jobs in production in an interview.
- nedsma 10y agoThe report in the Post may appear soft, however, this is how German media treated the same report: http://www.focus.de/auto/elektroauto/auto-vw-personalchef-werk-salzgitter-braucht-neue-aufgaben_id_5930673.html http://www.focus.de/auto/elektroauto/auto-vw-personalchef-we... The title translated: "The awful truth: Electric cars destroy jobs".
- wibr 10y agoThat's just clickbait, it's not something that the guy actually said.
- mioelnir 10y agoJust two paragraphs in the article says that they expect at least every 4th car to be electric by 2025, and that this of course means different supply requirements which they have to start planning for now. That's just regular market forecast planning.