This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Toyota Prius. Yet, German manufacturers have no competing product to offer: cars with electric components are those at the high end of the price list, totally overpriced. And when you ask the salespeople, they will tell you in all honesty to better NOT take that hybrid because of the questionably quality.
Cars like the Renault ZOE, Kia Niro, Hyundai Ioniq and a lot of other types show that you can make a hybrid/electric car at reasonable prices and good reliability. The German manufacturers seem to have nothing learned from it yet. This summer, the new fully-electric Smart comes out. Range: 120km. Who needs that shit? They say "most people don't drive more than that to work every day". What a bad excuse! They had that 5 years ago. Yet people love their Teslas because they don't have to think about charging every few kilometers. Buy a regular Golf: 17.000€. Buy a plugin-hybrid Golf (one of the very few German offerings): 35.000€. Clearly a sign they try to ride a dead horse. Invest now - live off the scaling effects tomorrow! Something that seems unthinkable in a traditional shareholder-value driven industry like the German car industry, that prides themselves to be at the forefront of technology, yet don't want to stop depending on 130 year old technology. Do you know what Mercedes began to offer in the year the Renault ZOE came out? They were proud on their brand new Mercedes G AMG65 with 12 cylinders. A 32 year old car that (almost) no one needs nowadays.
Look at the (German) Audi website. They have their G-Tron initiative. Looks quite impressive, next to their E-Tron stuff. G-Tron is CNG gas... they are just using the old engines further, branding them as "green" somehow.
Look at the (German) Audi website. They have their G-Tron initiative. Looks quite impressive, next to their E-Tron stuff. G-Tron is CNG gas... they are just using the old engines further, branding them as "green" somehow.