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The biggest irony in all of this is that the European carmakers have lobbied and continue to lobby the EU against too strict of a mandate for EVs or too large s
by mtgx 8y ago
The biggest irony in all of this is that the European carmakers have lobbied and continue to lobby the EU against too strict of a mandate for EVs or too large subsidies for EVs, while also lobbying against stricter emissions controls (which indirectly means they don't have to build as many EVs for their fleets either).
Meanwhile, the same European automakers seem very willing to adopt China's super-strict schedule for EV adoption over the next few years in the country.
The European auto-makers should count their lucky stars that on one hand Tesla is pushing them to go into EVs from the consumer side, and on the other China is doing the same through those strict regulations I mentioned.
Without these two, the European carmakers would have probably gone bankrupt one by one (or purchased by multi-billion dollar Chinese companies in the future). At least now they have a role in the future of cars. But losing their leadership in car-making is pretty much guaranteed already. They just don't know it yet.
- maxxxxx 8y agoI grew up near Mercedes and Porsche in Germany and from what I remember they were always very reactive. Every time something like catalytic filters, safety belts or emission standard became mandated they always fought and claimed the world would go under. And soon after they adopted these things and did really well.
- petre 8y agoThey're just buying more time. German automakers are quite risk-averse but usually they have the details sorted out before they go to market. Porsche already has hybrid cars and they're working on the Taycan. Audi has the e-tron in production. Daimler has the EQ concept which will go into production by 2022. What they don't have yet is the charging infrastructure. It should be standardised amongst all German automakers if they're smart.
- NicoJuicy 8y agoThe world would have ended many times over, but it still hasn't. I don't see a big rise in other cars yet. Not even a lot of EV's. Probably the EV's will come when the car manufacturers are ready
- Nasrudith 8y agoSounds like a classic flaw with innovator's dilemma. Established players try not to cannibalize themselves and the world passes them by. Kodak is one infamous example.
- lsc 8y agoHm? I thought Kodak was killed by the demise of demand for film cameras. They didn't have a significant leg in the world of high-end glass lenses or in the world of smartphones, which are the only, I think, significant photography markets left. I mean, sure, they could have come up with a digital point-n-click and been okay for a bit longer, but they would still have been stomped by the rise of the cellphone camera destroying the low-end camera market. The problem was that everything they were good at was no longer required. Really, the best they could have done is started renting their brand to digital camera makers sooner, while they still had a strong brand.
- dagw 8y agoKodak was a very early innovator in digital photography and there was a time when Kodak was the market leader in high end digital cameras. But they didn't want to cannibalize their film market so they killed that business.
- lsc 8y agoMy point is that today the digital camera market on the high end is all about the lens, something that is difficult and that Kodak didn't have a lot of expertise in, Just like the film camera market was. There was a period of time when having a better CCD would get you market share, but that was a relatively short period.