Oddbean new post about login | logout https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/a-very-serious-situation-volkswagen-could-close-plants-in-germany-for-the-first-time-in-history/ar-AA1pRLkc https://archive.is/3HofM What an absolute mess. Western manufacturers have dragged their heels on EV production for years to try and avoid the inevitable pain of the switch away from ICE. Meanwhile the west has been happy to buy anything and everything we don’t have any interest in making ourselves from China. Now we’re finding out the hard way that you can’t have your cake and eat it. We’ll buy your cheap stuff but not your expensive stuff? Seems like that hasn’t gone down too well. China now produce some very well made vehicles (including EVs) that easily challenge the established manufacturers. Western customers have a desire to switch to EVs which legacy manufacturers aren’t providing at the price required. Sounds perfect right? Read the words: “fuelled by concerns that Beijing-backed manufacturers are trying to flood the West with cheap battery-powered vehicles.” What concerns? Concerns that the targets we’ve set ourselves could be met? Concerns that a country has organised itself well enough to produce better cars than us? Concerns that these are cars that consumers want to buy? Concerns that it would actually help countries struggling with inflation and that have financial ‘black holes’? Concerns that this would help us switch away from fossil fuels faster than otherwise? Feels like the west either rips the sticking plaster off now and accepts the inevitable, or drag it out over a painfully long period of time. China employing “retaliatory tariffs” on all those things we’ve been perfectly happy to buy from them for the last 20 years. Entering some messy, energy sapping fight not only with other countries but also internally (see the union comments in the first article) as we slowly have to come to terms with the uncomfortable facts. This isn’t just about the Germans either. GM and Ford have similar issues. I’m struggling to find sympathy for companies that have not only refused to accept the inevitable, but in GMs case at least, actively tried to sabotage the switch to EVs. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
“Easy profits lured German carmakers into doing “more of the same” for years, says Eberhard Weiblen, boss of Porsche Consulting, an advisory firm owned by the eponymous carmaker. But this strategy is now backfiring badly. Homegrown, electric-only marques such as BYD, Nio and Xpeng have wooed Chinese drivers with technologically sophisticated vehicles that, underpinned by subsidies, also sell at far lower prices.” https://archive.ph/gcHSK#selection-3807.0-3811.219