EU-countries should stop bitching about the ban and get their asses up and create affordable EVs.
It’s not like combustion engines are ever going to have a comeback while you loose the automotive and battery market to China in real-time.
The real problem is that ICE cars are becoming more and more expensive as well.
So… We either abandon the EV race and are flooded by cheap ICE Chinese cars… Or we keep going EV while being flooded by cheaper Chinese BEVs.
Tariffs and bans will only make everything worse.
Still, one can argue that with the demografic collapse, there should be way less vehicles on the road, so the industry will face a downward trend regardless in the near future. Along with everything else.
In the long term, ICE cars have no chance to survive. Electric engines are simpler, cheaper, far more reliable, easier to build and upkeep. There is a reason why trolleybuses can survive for decades, whereas regular buses rarely survive more than 10 years.
However, the big car producers don’t like electric cars because ICE cars have higher profit margins. ICEs are very complicated machines and that makes the barrier of entry very high. Everyone can make an electric motor.
I feel they’re doing the Kodak maneuver: try to squeeze as much as possible from the current business before finally dying.
The biggest problem by far is the power grid. Bigger cities already have schedules for each street on when they are allowed to charge and when it’s someone else’s turn because the power grid can’t handle it and won’t be able to handle it in the foreseeable future. On top of that, how is that going to work in apartment buildings that don’t have electricity outside because they are parking on streets?
It’s understandable that we should transition, but it’s completely cutting out more than half of the people in Europe from using EVs.
and a plan to have a good public transport + bike infra, right, right?
> EU-countries should stop bitching about the ban and get their asses up and create affordable EVs.
Keyword being *affordable*.
VW held it in its hands with the e-Golf. Cheap & reliable.
But nooo, they had to invent an entirely new platform, that easily costs EUR 10.000 more at least.
VW thought they could score on offering expensive EVs that *look* a bit like their greatest hits with the Buzz.
What VW should do instead is to deliver new EVs that apply the same design that made them great: simply, reliable, cheap.
Hope they eventually leave it alone.
If you listen to insiders from the industry, the one thing they don’t want is this constant back and forth. They want reliable messaging from the top, so long-term investments can be made without too much risk that everything will be flipped around again after 5 years.
A major problem, at least here in Germany, is the share of people who rent vs the share of people who own a house. With your own house, charging is no issue and it actually reduces your wasted time at gas stations. For people living in apartments, switching to EVs is much less straightforward. Overnight charging options close to apartment buildings are still super rare and the few chargers at supermarkets and similar destinations are often occupied, so buying an EV means that you likely need to add a 30+ minute stop to your routine every few days. That could be fine, if EVs were cheaper than ICEs, but they aren’t. Paying significantly more for a car that still has less range and that inconveniences you more than a comparable ICE just doesn’t make sense to a huge percentage of car owners.
The government needs to stop arguing about rolling everything back, massively increase the speed of growing the charging infrastructure and incentivize local manufacturers to innovate to make EVs more affordable.
“We want to review and eliminate this policy because its green ideology against our industry”
-Literally Fiat
“Bruh, we dont want any co2 policy delays, we are fine”
-Meloni
“ItS kIlLiNg oUr InDustRy”
ICE ban is a clear way to handover the leadership of automotive industry to China.
I have the feeling there’s way too much ground to cover before they can completely ban combustion engines. The main thing would be having enough charging infrastructure. That’s a huge project with huge expenses considering we’re talking the entire EU here.
A populist leading the charge of EU becoming technologically irrelevant, who would’ve thought… Who will be buying an outdated, inefficient and expensive fossil car in 2030 anyway?!
I agree with this. Instead of banning combustion and subsidizing EVs, invest more into rail and public infrastructure. Get people off cars in general. Create more easy-to-use rental cars for outskirts.
13 comments
EU-countries should stop bitching about the ban and get their asses up and create affordable EVs.
It’s not like combustion engines are ever going to have a comeback while you loose the automotive and battery market to China in real-time.
The real problem is that ICE cars are becoming more and more expensive as well.
So… We either abandon the EV race and are flooded by cheap ICE Chinese cars… Or we keep going EV while being flooded by cheaper Chinese BEVs.
Tariffs and bans will only make everything worse.
Still, one can argue that with the demografic collapse, there should be way less vehicles on the road, so the industry will face a downward trend regardless in the near future. Along with everything else.
In the long term, ICE cars have no chance to survive. Electric engines are simpler, cheaper, far more reliable, easier to build and upkeep. There is a reason why trolleybuses can survive for decades, whereas regular buses rarely survive more than 10 years.
However, the big car producers don’t like electric cars because ICE cars have higher profit margins. ICEs are very complicated machines and that makes the barrier of entry very high. Everyone can make an electric motor.
I feel they’re doing the Kodak maneuver: try to squeeze as much as possible from the current business before finally dying.
The biggest problem by far is the power grid. Bigger cities already have schedules for each street on when they are allowed to charge and when it’s someone else’s turn because the power grid can’t handle it and won’t be able to handle it in the foreseeable future. On top of that, how is that going to work in apartment buildings that don’t have electricity outside because they are parking on streets?
It’s understandable that we should transition, but it’s completely cutting out more than half of the people in Europe from using EVs.
and a plan to have a good public transport + bike infra, right, right?
> EU-countries should stop bitching about the ban and get their asses up and create affordable EVs.
Keyword being *affordable*.
VW held it in its hands with the e-Golf. Cheap & reliable.
But nooo, they had to invent an entirely new platform, that easily costs EUR 10.000 more at least.
VW thought they could score on offering expensive EVs that *look* a bit like their greatest hits with the Buzz.
What VW should do instead is to deliver new EVs that apply the same design that made them great: simply, reliable, cheap.
Hope they eventually leave it alone.
If you listen to insiders from the industry, the one thing they don’t want is this constant back and forth. They want reliable messaging from the top, so long-term investments can be made without too much risk that everything will be flipped around again after 5 years.
A major problem, at least here in Germany, is the share of people who rent vs the share of people who own a house. With your own house, charging is no issue and it actually reduces your wasted time at gas stations. For people living in apartments, switching to EVs is much less straightforward. Overnight charging options close to apartment buildings are still super rare and the few chargers at supermarkets and similar destinations are often occupied, so buying an EV means that you likely need to add a 30+ minute stop to your routine every few days. That could be fine, if EVs were cheaper than ICEs, but they aren’t. Paying significantly more for a car that still has less range and that inconveniences you more than a comparable ICE just doesn’t make sense to a huge percentage of car owners.
The government needs to stop arguing about rolling everything back, massively increase the speed of growing the charging infrastructure and incentivize local manufacturers to innovate to make EVs more affordable.
“We want to review and eliminate this policy because its green ideology against our industry”
-Literally Fiat
“Bruh, we dont want any co2 policy delays, we are fine”
-Meloni
“ItS kIlLiNg oUr InDustRy”
ICE ban is a clear way to handover the leadership of automotive industry to China.
I have the feeling there’s way too much ground to cover before they can completely ban combustion engines. The main thing would be having enough charging infrastructure. That’s a huge project with huge expenses considering we’re talking the entire EU here.
A populist leading the charge of EU becoming technologically irrelevant, who would’ve thought… Who will be buying an outdated, inefficient and expensive fossil car in 2030 anyway?!
I agree with this. Instead of banning combustion and subsidizing EVs, invest more into rail and public infrastructure. Get people off cars in general. Create more easy-to-use rental cars for outskirts.