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Well VW is due to release cars based on their new electric platform this year and the next few years going forward. They are called id https://www.volkswagen.co
by orbifold 7y ago
Well VW is due to release cars based on their new electric platform this year and the next few years going forward. They are called id https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/e-mobility/en.html https://www.volkswagen.co.uk/e-mobility/en.html. I don't think they are necessarily late. BMW and Mercedes have made similar investments in all electric platforms. They are all basically going full force in that direction now and have been for a few years. Note that VWs platform will find its way into cars of all of their other brands (SEAT, Skoda and so on).
BMWs CEO left recently because he did not execute quickly enough on their electric strategy squandering their initial lead.
- codeulike 7y agoWell VW is due to release cars based on their new electric platform this year Finally after years and years of saying it was around the corner. Lets see the price and specs. I think they still havent released those details? BMW and Mercedes have made similar investments in all electric platforms. What you mean is, BMW and Mercedes have made similar noises about getting really good at EVs in a few years time but so far have produced nothing of much relevance. The BMW i3 was pretty good for its time but then they disbanded the team, goodness knows what boardroom nonsense was going on there.
- turbinerneiter 7y agoLuckily, we had the emissions fraud scandal. Gave a big push to the EV people in all those companies. The combusters still have a lot to say, since they are the ones earning the profits. It's not meant as an excuse for the old guard, but making billions per year by selling ICEs doesn't make it easier to launch good EVs. Without Tesla, it would never happen.
- bluGill 7y agoIt takes years to design a car. They need to run for thousands of miles across rough roads. There are thousands of moving parts. There are thousands more parts that don't move but are still complex.
- silversconfused 7y agoAn EV drivetrain is extremely simple and reliable. They are dragging their feet on purpose to extend their returns on ICE investment, not because it's "too hard".
- bluGill 7y agoA Drive train is just a small part of a car. While it is simpler than an ICE, it is not simple to make millions of them reliable for 10 years.
- silversconfused 7y agoUnless EV door handles and airbags are that much more complicated, I must be missing something. The problems with EVs are support infrastructure and profitability, NOT reliability and complexity.
- clouddrover 7y agoTesla has the third lowest reliability rating of any car manufacturer. If you want reliability you want to buy Toyota: https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/2018/10/consumer_reports_annual_reliability_survey_tesla_and_other_domestic_brands_take_big_steps_backwards_in_rankings11/ https://www.consumerreports.org/media-room/press-releases/20... Reliability isn't as simple as "it's an EV".
- orbifold 7y agoThey think in terms of platforms, their next gen platform has all kinds of other requirements (think >100 processors, sensors etc.). The good news is that their next gen platform will be electric and that they hiring >5000 new software engineers to build out the user experience.
- perl4ever 7y ago"An EV drivetrain is extremely simple and reliable" I don't know why it is so popular to repeat this over and over because it seems palpably ridiculous to me. Everybody has plenty of experience with electrically powered appliances, and many if not most of them only last a few years. I'm not suggesting this is inherent, just that there is no reason to consider them simpler or necessarily more reliable. If there were washing machines or smartphones that you could expect to last decades, then I would find the idea of EVs being super reliable more plausible.