Edit: actually I can't tell if thats their cheapest car, VWs website sucks on mobile so I gave up. You'd think it'd be easy to just show the prices
Demand for Tesla EVs is... booming. Tesla sold 83% more cars in the most recent quarter than in the same quarter a year ago.[a]
[a] https://digitalassets.tesla.com/tesla-contents/image/upload/...
VW once had quite a lot of brand loyalty, because they made good products and changed them incrementally, according to engineering decisions. That's not true now, with so many different styles being made available that it's hard to keep track, with odd finishing decisions (those horrid screens on the dashboard make it anything but a drivers' car). Heck, I saw a video of a test drive that talked about the gear shifter coming out of its attachment as the driver made an aggressive shift. I drove VWs for years, and I never one thought the gear shifter would come lose.
It seems like MBAs are making decisions at VW, and not driving enthusiasts.
Here's a thought for VW: electrify the car that made you so much money for so many years (the plain golf) and see what happens to your bottom line.
Plus, (a) reviews for the electric VW aren’t impressed, (b) [charging] network matters, (c) pay the VW “premium” for first-gen tech? Seems like a poor bet.
I suspect there's another reason for the cuts, but the following is just BS. I'm hoping someone knows something substantive - a paper, a book, a term for it, etc.:
I often see a new management philosophy of hyper-aggression and disdain for all but money, treating labor (and nursing home patients, healthcare patients, journalism, students, etc.) as commodities to squeeze rather than contributors (and human beings and social goods) to value; treating profit as an outcome of squeezing every dollar/euro possible from everything rather than innovating productivity for society. No, it hasn't always been that way; remember Silicon Valley leaders treating their employees with respect, with flat hierarchies, 20% time dedicated to personal projects, etc etc.
The problem is, the leader of a new product direction has not just perfected the new tech, but identified and grown a new market segment and captured a new customer base.
The followers not only have to catch up with technology, but find new market segments with latent customers for their version of the new technology. After the original company scooped up all the low hanging market fruit.
That is a sneaky double whammy they don't plan for when they initially wait things out.
So, once again the only country to manufacture cutting edge technology goods at scale and at a reasonable cost ends up being China.
The geopolitical landscape when China's EV domination fully expends will be something else entirely...
China has been building this sector for like 30 years.
While Europeans were so proud of their diesel vehicles and how clean they were and the Germany companies endlessly talking about hydrogen and green fuels. While Europe has basically no resource extraction related to batteries or much of any battery refinement for most of that period.
But now that this bears fruit for China the EU is like 'what what what, I though our brilliant hydrogen plan was gone work'.
All new cars spy on you (well most do), but EV's are completely software driven and seem to be more intrusive. I want a car I can connect to the internet when I want to for updates and that is it. I also want android auto and the apple one for my wife, I do not want a proprietary (Tesla) entertainment system.
I want right to repair. It is my car if I spend that much on it, I want to do to it whatever I want.
I want all the equipment in the car to work when i purchase it and no monthly fees (I get it for XM Radio, I am talking like seat heaters and such).
For some reason it also irritates me Tesla can increase mileage with a flip of a switch (Like they were going to do in Florida for a hurricane a while back). So you are telling me they could of been build with smaller batteries and save money and the environment, but they were not so you could have a software upgrade (or was that a monthly payment as well). Also the fact Tesla can remote disable my vehicle, and purchased upgrades do not transfer to the new owner.
I can probably go on and on with my whining, but that is why i still have 2 gas guzzlers and a motorcycle (newest vehicle is 2008, 2005 Honda van has 270,000 miles on it). They are paid for an yes a little maintenance here and there but that is not enough to make me spend $30k + on an electric vehicle.