It appears that I'm not the only European cross about the German car lobby...
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@sorenhave @Ruth_Mottram
it's a trick question?
at least one country in each pair can, by definition, not have long distance trains?@sorenhave @Ruth_Mottram
he, guessed it right
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@sorenhave i got it right too! Though I quibble with definition of "long distance" in Netherlands..
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It appears that I'm not the only European cross about the German car lobby...
Germany needs to get a grip, the curve has been bent, EVs are basically inevitable now. -
@Ruth_Mottram The green candidate for chancellorship (Habeck) has already told the German car industry in 2019 that if they don’t have a cheap EV by 2024 they risk being left behind:
Robert Habeck kritisiert Elektro-Strategie von Volkswagen
Der Elektro-Volkswagen zu erschwinglichen Preisen kommt - aber zunächst wird der Konzern die Technologie in teure Autos einbauen. Für Grünenchef Habeck Anlass zu einer Breitseite gegen die Wolfsburger.
(www.spiegel.de)
So no: you’re not the only European who’s angry.
That said: VW is now the largest seller of EV’s in the EU:
https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/niedersachsen/e-autos-volkswagen-ueberholt-tesla-in-europa,volkswagen-234.html(because most people don’t want a Tesla anymore)
VW has nearly three times the EV market share in Europe as the runner-up.
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The future is EVs. The future structure of current car companies is...problematic.
An average EV will legitimately last 20 years, probably see a good number past 30. A business that struggles when avg lifespan starts pushing 12-15, isn't capable of that transition.
Add in the almost complete drop off in maintenance needs and it's a financial death spiral.
And a problem we need to figure out b/c we need to be in EVs.
@pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram it’s only recently that I learned that indeed maintenance is a large part of car companies’ revenues. We need to find a completely different business model. I don’t know if any ideas are floating around.
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The future is EVs. The future structure of current car companies is...problematic.
An average EV will legitimately last 20 years, probably see a good number past 30. A business that struggles when avg lifespan starts pushing 12-15, isn't capable of that transition.
Add in the almost complete drop off in maintenance needs and it's a financial death spiral.
And a problem we need to figure out b/c we need to be in EVs.
@pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram I'm unconvinced that an *average* EV will last that long. My ICE cars have always been written off because of body rust, the majority of their maintenance has always been stuff like suspension components - all of that is essentially unchanged on an EV. Comparatively, my EV seems to have a large number of extremely expensive to replace electronic modules which could easily write off the car (I have seen figures such as £6k to replace a module, which is nuts).
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@pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram I'm unconvinced that an *average* EV will last that long. My ICE cars have always been written off because of body rust, the majority of their maintenance has always been stuff like suspension components - all of that is essentially unchanged on an EV. Comparatively, my EV seems to have a large number of extremely expensive to replace electronic modules which could easily write off the car (I have seen figures such as £6k to replace a module, which is nuts).
@steve @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram
this is my experience too - extremely expensive to maintain because 1. the parts are super-expensive, and 2. there is very little competition for those qualified to do the maintenance
this is also my experience of air-source heat-exchangers - they were supposed to save money but they have cost thousands more to maintain, they keep breaking, and again, the market is not yet mature and competitive, and often a monopoly.
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@steve @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram
this is my experience too - extremely expensive to maintain because 1. the parts are super-expensive, and 2. there is very little competition for those qualified to do the maintenance
this is also my experience of air-source heat-exchangers - they were supposed to save money but they have cost thousands more to maintain, they keep breaking, and again, the market is not yet mature and competitive, and often a monopoly.
@charlesdelavalleepoussin @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram I can't see a good reason for the parts being so expensive - if each part *really* cost what it does as a replacement, the cars would be unaffordable. It just looks like the manufacturers charging stupid sums because they are the only source for the parts, so they can. Time for some regulation?
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@charlesdelavalleepoussin @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram I can't see a good reason for the parts being so expensive - if each part *really* cost what it does as a replacement, the cars would be unaffordable. It just looks like the manufacturers charging stupid sums because they are the only source for the parts, so they can. Time for some regulation?
@charlesdelavalleepoussin @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram A bigger problem for dealers than the longevity of EVs is probably the reduced servicing demands - the routine servicing an EV requires is negligable. No annual oil change, etc. At the moment, the dealers are getting away with charging £400 for an "annual service" that boils down to kicking the tyres and changing a £10 pollen filter - I can't see that continuing forever.
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@charlesdelavalleepoussin @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram A bigger problem for dealers than the longevity of EVs is probably the reduced servicing demands - the routine servicing an EV requires is negligable. No annual oil change, etc. At the moment, the dealers are getting away with charging £400 for an "annual service" that boils down to kicking the tyres and changing a £10 pollen filter - I can't see that continuing forever.
@charlesdelavalleepoussin @pixelpusher220 @Ruth_Mottram although, people are concerned that if they don't pay the dealer's rip-off "servicing" rates, their warranty won't be honoured.
