Slashdot Mirror
VW Plans A $ 22K Electric Car To Compete With Tesla, Transition From Combustion Engines (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Reuters:
Volkswagen intends to sell electric cars for less than 20,000 euros ($22,836) and protect German jobs by converting three factories to make Tesla rivals, a source familiar with the plans said... Plans for VW's electric car, known as "MEB entry" and with a production volume of 200,000 vehicles, are due to be discussed at a supervisory board meeting on Nov. 16, the source said... The November 16 strategy meeting will discuss Volkswagen's transformation plan to shift from being Europe's largest maker of combustion engine vehicles into a mass producer of electric cars, another source familiar with the deliberations said.
VW's strategy shift comes as cities start to ban diesel engine vehicles, forcing carmakers to think of new ways to safeguard 600,000 German industrial jobs, of which 436,000 are at car companies and their suppliers.... The shift from combustion engines to electric cars would also cost 14,000 jobs at VW by 2020 as it takes less time to build an electric car than a conventional one and because jobs will shift overseas to battery manufacturers.
VW's strategy shift comes as cities start to ban diesel engine vehicles, forcing carmakers to think of new ways to safeguard 600,000 German industrial jobs, of which 436,000 are at car companies and their suppliers.... The shift from combustion engines to electric cars would also cost 14,000 jobs at VW by 2020 as it takes less time to build an electric car than a conventional one and because jobs will shift overseas to battery manufacturers.
Yes, VW, Daimler, BMW, GM, Ford, fiat-chrysler, Nissan, etc have spent the last 5-7 years telling us how they would beat Tesla. Now, like cold fusion, it will happen real soon.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Only a retard would buy an electric car.
Yeah, I have to say that I made a poor decision: I am really getting fed up with not having to do any maintenance on my ten year old electric car. Not having to get oil changes several times a year is killing me, and I absolutely regret not changing the serpentine belt at 100k miles. I worry that the huge bills I can expect for replacing the fuel pump and muffler are going to break my budget next month, and now that the head gasket is leaking oil, I don't think the car will pass inspection either. Most of all, I miss standing next to my car for 10 minutes in -5 degree January weather putting gas in it.
On the plus side, my 20 mile commute every day costs me 50 cents in electricity...
Who's the retard?
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
I dunno about you, but I remember when 'trolling' actually meant something. These days, the vast majority of them just sling baseless insults and utter nonsense around, am I right? Seriously, they're not even trying anymore, and they're unfunny to boot. Sad. There used to be an art to it. Now it's about as interesting as a dumpster fire.
Tesla is not competition for the big auto makers. Tesla is just an ego project for a man-child with too much money and time with nothing better to do. A pet project some chuckleheads take seriously for no logical reason. Pure emotion.
I tend to agree with you with regards to competition: Electric is going to be a big part of the future transportation and Tesla will find they are not alone in the performance electric market: Porsche is touting their coming E-Performance cars in a big bold announcement at the front of their web site; Jaguar's I-Pace SUV is on offer. And VW is the by far the biggest carmaking enterprise.
As for Tesla's leader, Elon Musk, I happen to think that promoting electric cars to help us kick the fossil fuel habit is one of the better things a person could offer humanity. So, yeah, there is literally not much that would be better to do.
If you read Slashdot, you should know that smart, technically savvy people oftan have their quirks. It's can be easy to make fun of such people, but they also deserve credit where credit is due.