Looks like Germany has had a kick in the family jewels aka. VW!
In the news it was reported, that VW will have to fire “loads” of people and close production facilities. Up until now measures like these have been taboo and although people have been fired it has never been on the scale projected now…
The recited reasons are that the e-cars are not selling in the amounts they should and that sales in China have fallen off a cliff.
To which I say: "Of course you morons, taking monies out of Germany and investing in China, showing them how to build cars and then much gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands when the Chinese take what they have learned and build better and cheaper cars locally.
In a just world there must be consequences for management drones when they screw up like this. I mean thousands are projected to lose their jobs, the local towns around the plants that will close are going to suffer and the strain on already overstretched social services will reach breaking point and the worse thing that can happen to those who caused it is a golden parachute.
It stinks.
Well, wasn´t that what the current government wants? Less CO2 in Germany? They probably will celebrate this…
Also take the cost of production into account and the increased prices for electricity and gas.
Is this a general rant about everything or do you want to give the topic a particular direction? Executive accountability, industrial policy, China?
I am sorry, but this is just polemic. You may want to read up about CBAM for example.
Wasn’t the fate of VW specifically in the short term and the German auto-industry in general and in the mid-term already sealed? The German premium in the combustion engine era has been completely eradicated in a world which is moving towards EVs (Germany doesn’t have unique know how) and software/digital platforms (Germany has no know-how and manufacturers use 3rd party software).
Having said that, I am certain I will live up to see the moment when millions of BYD cars will be blocked by its software centrally, because of some spat between the Chinese and German governments.
I suppose this is a consequence of the strong de-growth and green movements in Germany. Scrapping nuclear and gas power, increased electricity costs and transition to EVs.
As usual, the grass is greener in the other side, right?
Let’s look at the canary in the coal mine of Chinese EVs: Mobileye -68% YTD, why?
Chinese companies also have problems and are fighting for their survival too. Some recent news:
The Chinese car market, the largest in the world and the holy grail for all players in the industry, is undergoing a shake-up. On one hand, it is suffering from a slowdown due to the weakening local economy, causing Chinese consumers to spend less. As evidence, vehicle sales in the local market decreased by about 3% in June. On the other hand, the escalating trade war between China and the United States, as well as Europe, is beginning to make exports more difficult.
So, it’s just capitalism at work, creative destruction and all that.
Move fast and break things…oops.
More context, the apparent onslaught of Chinese car companies may be explained by the collapse in their home market, export or die.
I run a Tesla Model Y and my partner a VW iD3.
The VW is solid quiet and very well built. BUT is is nowhere as efficient as the Tesla and the software is a nightmare and remote charging is roulette. Having spent 2 days at the dealer for a software update last year and the dealer supplying a free loaner, the result was underwhelming and no improvement was noticeable.
VW sacked their EV chief and closed their software dept and employed a Chinese one. Over the air updates, promised from the launch, have never materialised.
Like all legacy manufacturers, VW hoped the EVs would go away and they could keep burning oil for evermore.
Meanwhile the Chinese fell out of love with foreign brands. Their EV is industry hell-bent on conquering the world even though they loose money on every car they make. The market where VW and others saw over 50% of their sales has evaporated before their eyes.
VW owes close to $200 billion to banks. The future looks grim. As does that of many big-name legacy car makers…
If I had a non-Tesla I would sign up for Tesla Supercharging (~CHF 13/month). The experience is not as slick since you have to go into the app and enter the stall ID before it starts charging, but you get to use most of the network and you pay the same as a Tesla owner.
Chinese economy is in terrible shape and heading for the gutter, but even without this, the industry (heck, pretty much all industry in China) is incredibly cut-throat and a corporate survival of the fittest.
I’m sure most of the current car players will die and leave behind only a small handful of national champions.
There are more than 200 EV car companies in China, so we’re definitely seeing Darwinism in real time. The fittest in my opinion are the likes of BYD, Geely and SAIC and they are doing the right thing by partnering with legacy European brands. Geely in particular leads the pack since they own Volvo, have a 50:50 partnership with Mercedes (under the SMART) and Google is heavily integrated into their infotainment and navigation systems so OTA SW updates are painless. In fact my second choice after Tesla was either going to be the Volvo EX40 or Smart #3.
You are letting your prejudices show. Like all European countries Germany has its issues, but their industry has proven since 1945 to be more resilient than Britain’s. No amount of preaching/schadenfreude from the British press is going to change that. There is no evidence that moves to renewable energy are anything other than positive - those green movements may just be the way of the future. As for nuclear - when private industry is prepared to take on all the costs maybe it is worth looking at again. Fusion remains a dream, the only sites available for fission reactors are old nuclear stations where the sites so contaminated as to be unusable for any other purpose.
Meanwhile the Chinese fell out of love with foreign brands. Their EV is industry hell-bent on conquering the world even though they loose money on every car they make.
Have you seen their design? There’s no way they’ll conquer the world. I bet the Chinese didn’t fell out of love with foreign brands, they’re just less accessible to them.
Most of the big Chinese manufacturers now have Western design heads and its starting to show.
Wolfgang Egger - BYD
Klaus Zyciora Bischoff - Changan
Kris Tomasson - NIO
Stefan Sielaff - Geely
Pontus Fontaeus - GAC
Henning Knoepfle - Dongfeng
Andrew Dyson - Great Wall Motors
Giles Taylor - FAW
Sajdin Osmancevic - Chery
Rafik Ferrag - Xpeng
Benjamin Baum - Li Auto
Designer Carl Gotham, Joscha Thielen
I assume for the rich/nouveau riche is easy peasy - they want the real thing.
Last specs I saw, it weights 2 tons empty. Just like an BMW M8 convertible.
Anyway, it would be interesting to see any Chinese manufacturer start assembling cars in a plant within the EU to avoid the 100% import tariff from China.
That could happen before you say “Hey!” - somewhere in Hungary or even Austria. 
Just like me, it hides it well.