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What I find baffling is that Volkswagen has absolutely nothing to offer in the low price segment. We were lucky to get an eUp! when the price was reasonable, bu

by jansan 2y ago

What I find baffling is that Volkswagen has absolutely nothing to offer in the low price segment. We were lucky to get an eUp! when the price was reasonable, but after they stopped production there is a glaring hole in their portfolio, and of course the Chinese will try to fill that

talldayo 2y ago
Thank goodness all of our hype, investment and subsidies went to one man that doesn't even intend to create human jobs or sell cars to anyone the rich and supremely insecure. Sure was worth the entire free market going gaga for this tasty nothingburger, yesiree.
- FeepingCreature 2y ago
  I mean, that doesn't really excuse VW's failure.
deelowe 2y ago
I suspect the engineers at traditional automakers HATE electric vehicles and this is likely causing massive delays. The vast vast majority of those engineers and other technical folks have careers which are are utterly dependent on ICE development and support. This sort of transformative shift rarely happens from within. At least not easily.
- bux93 2y ago
  Probably not the engineers, but the suits. Switching over from ICE is an enormous business problem because it's not just about manufacturing, but the whole after market ecosystem. EVs require less maintenance, but dealerships make most of their money on replacement parts. Getting rid of some uppity ICE engineers (in so far as they're not retiring) is the least of your problems as an ICE automaker.
- jansan 2y ago
  As an engineer who used to work in the car industry I do not think the engineers hate electric cars. Also, they are not the ones making the decisions. Volkswagen basically bet the farm on electric vehicles. They were late to the party, but went all in, so you cannot blame them for trying to block EVs. I rather suspect that making cheap EVs is just extremely difficult if you intend to make a profit. I bet they lost a good sum of money on every eUp! they produced (here in Germany you could get them for 15,000€ at the right time, which is a steal), so they decided to quit producing it, which IMO is a real shame, because it is such a cool car for inner city commuting.

by jansan 2y ago

talldayo 2y ago

Thank goodness all of our hype, investment and subsidies went to one man that doesn't even intend to create human jobs or sell cars to anyone the rich and supremely insecure. Sure was worth the entire free market going gaga for this tasty nothingburger, yesiree.

FeepingCreature 2y ago
I mean, that doesn't really excuse VW's failure.

deelowe 2y ago

I suspect the engineers at traditional automakers HATE electric vehicles and this is likely causing massive delays. The vast vast majority of those engineers and other technical folks have careers which are are utterly dependent on ICE development and support. This sort of transformative shift rarely happens from within. At least not easily.

bux93 2y ago
Probably not the engineers, but the suits. Switching over from ICE is an enormous business problem because it's not just about manufacturing, but the whole after market ecosystem. EVs require less maintenance, but dealerships make most of their money on replacement parts. Getting rid of some uppity ICE engineers (in so far as they're not retiring) is the least of your problems as an ICE automaker.
jansan 2y ago
As an engineer who used to work in the car industry I do not think the engineers hate electric cars. Also, they are not the ones making the decisions. Volkswagen basically bet the farm on electric vehicles. They were late to the party, but went all in, so you cannot blame them for trying to block EVs. I rather suspect that making cheap EVs is just extremely difficult if you intend to make a profit. I bet they lost a good sum of money on every eUp! they produced (here in Germany you could get them for 15,000€ at the right time, which is a steal), so they decided to quit producing it, which IMO is a real shame, because it is such a cool car for inner city commuting.