Posted on 09/12/2017 9:10:52 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
FRANKFURT - European car bosses are beginning to address the realities of mass vehicle electrification, and its consequences for jobs and profit, their minds focused by government pledges to outlaw the combustion engine.
As the latest such announcement on Monday by China added momentum to a push for zero-emissions motoring, Daimler, Volkswagen and PSA Group gave details about their electric programs that could give policymakers some pause.
Planned electric Mercedes models will initially be just half as profitable as conventional alternatives, Daimler warned - forcing the group to find savings by outsourcing more component manufacturing, which may in turn threaten German jobs.
“In-house production is almost irrelevant to the consumer,” Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche told reporters in the midst of a German election campaign in which automotive jobs have loomed large.
A phase-out of combustion engines by 2030 could cost 600,000 jobs in Germany alone, the country’s Ifo economic institute has warned.
Since the battery is the single biggest-value item in an electric car, however, experts point out that mass adoption would shift business and jobs from European suppliers to China, which already dominates the automotive power-pack market.
Independent analyst Richard Windsor warned that far from boosting the industry, a shift to electric cars - which are expected to last longer than combustion-engined equivalents and require less maintenance - could inflict long-term damage.
“Vehicle makers are queuing up to announce their commitment to electric vehicles but at the same time they may be cheering for their own demise,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
When their sales fall to near zero, they will realize their mistake.........................
How about Displaced Emissions Motoring?
China has a corner on the market for the rare-earth elements because the rest of the world has given it to China.Rare earths are not particularly rare, just “dirty” to produce and other countries have pretty much regulated them out of local production. China is glad to take the pollution that results from production of these materials and have a governments-given monopoly. In reality there is no other kind of monopoly.
China doesn't throw money like that away on propaganda.................
Yes but that bribe was for copper, not lithium...:^)
European countries phasing out nuclear for wind and sun. Somehow convinced can also shut down coal, then gas fired generation.
I have no issues with people who want EVs. I simply know that I do not, and that an EV would be wildly inappropriate for my living situation (in the country, sketchy electric status when problems arise).
The issue I have is that the governmental bodies desperately want to “do something” about “climate change” by forcing people like me to use technology that is inappropriate and unwanted.
Fourth, it migrates through the walls of containers unless lined with amorphous alumina.
It is nice waiting 8 hours to fill-er-up!
I live in the country, where you drive 50 miles to town, the power goes out often enough to make a generator useful, and it goes down to -25 in the winter.
I need a new Suburban, not an electric car.
Why assume the top-up at a Tesla Supercharger will always be free. It’s a loss-leader to sell a car. Likewise adding the automotive demand for charging to the grid might well increase electric cost.
Many want solar and wind—no coal, or gas, or nuclear. They haven’t a way to meet demand without viable storage. They can overbuild renewable and produce expensive power, or time-share ration the electrical distribution.
http://launchloop.com/PowerLoop
I’m told by friends and family in Florida, they expect to be without power for 2 weeks or more, depending. How long to charge one of these POS with a generator? The longer it takes the more gas you have to feed to the gen.!
They have discontinued free lifetime charging except for the most expensive new cars. They allow for something like 1K free miles per year, then charge a modest fee. On another note, they are coming out with a new supercharger for big city dwellers that don't have access to electrical outlets at home or work. The charge time will be double the regular highway supercharger charge time. I suspect they are doing it to reduce wear and tear on the battery.
In 2 years, I only had to “wait” maybe 4 times. The rest of the time it was fully charged every morning or after work.
Contrast: add up the time spent driving to/from a gas station over 2 years.
i was a long haul trucker for 30 years,so iv’e been everywhere.
Yeah, I forgot about that guy. Either way, Daimler Benz looted Chrysler of all of their capital, and then dumped them when they no longer had a use for them. I remember Zetsche from when he made an appearance at the plant that I was working at. Made all sorts of grand gestures and promises, and then turned around and closed the plant a year later. Some of the machinery from that plant ended up down in mexico at the plant that makes hemis.
So both Chrysler and Daimler lost bigly? Daimler stock lost billions due to that fiasco.
Chrysler lost. Daimler walked away with Freightliner, Western Star, Detroit Diesel, and formed Sterling from those, along witb a foothold in the north american diesel truck market. That’s what Daimler Benz does, they’re a medium-heavy truck manufacturer. The bought into cash cow Chrysler to finance those purchases, and then sold the corpse to Cerberus group, who bled them dry, and dumped them in bankruptcy court.
This type of business practice is still going on to this day within the auto industry.
The auto industry is a cut throat business that runs on razor thin margins. You either beat your competition in sales, undercut them on price, buyout or steal their suppliers, offshore your supply chain, or buy them outright and gut them.
Dog eat dog at its finest. This is how they’ve operated since the turn of the 20th century.
If you don’t have the stomach for that type of business, or if you let your morals cloud your business decisions, then find another industry to invest in.
-—China and India -—
There you have it.
Europe is seriously ill and dying. There can be no recovery.
The future is Asia including Japan and Taiwan. The Arabs know it and have positioned the GCC to take the place of the British and other taipans by building banking and distribution facilities.
East of suez is where it’s at. There are literally billions of young people that are ambitious and energetic and will make it happen.
Ah, thanks for the additional info. Wasn’t aware of that.
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