Wow, companies without an inside line to the Chinese government are caught off-guard when the government changes its policies on private vehicle acquisition. Who’d have thought…
Lol. Few car companies have as long standing and deep a relationship with the Chinese government than VW. They were literally the first Western car company approached as part of China’s economic reforms starting in the 80’s and VW and Audi’s were official government vehicles for more than 3 decades. Like imagine if US government vehicles were all Toyota’s instead of GM’s and Ford’s.
when the government changes its policies on private vehicle acquisition
What specific policies are you referring to here that was aimed at screwing VW?
Good for china
VW watching VW sales plummet is probably the norm at this point. They have nothing worth buying in the VW lineup.
The Golf used to be such a leader in its segment. When I traveled Eastern Europe, sometimes every 4th or 5th car was a Mk1-Mk7 Golf. The Mk8 is a huge failure & in its basic form cannot compete with other cars like Honda,Toyota,Hyundai,etc
China is making a lot of super cheap EVs.
You really have to visit China to understand how fast the transition to EV is. It’s not surprising when manufacturers are willing to actually make AFFORDABLE EVs, people will actually buy them.
I visit China every 2 weeks and take Chinese Ubers where the EVs don’t even have a touchscreen infotainment. Those cars are at most $20,000USD and fully electric.
EVs don’t even have a touchscreen infotainment.
/r/cars breathing intensifies…
Are they also manual transmission brown wagons that come used from the factory by any chance?
They have built up the EV infrastructure so quickly. The worry in America is “well what if I have to travel 500miles in a day??”
Maybe they should manufacture and sell the ID.2 in North America.
I want to buy one.
Amazing what can happen when politicians don’t make everything a battleground. China is more forward thinking and progressive than the US has been since the 70s.
The gap only continues to widen as many politicians love dumbing down their voter bases.
The infotainment system needs to be bigger so you can’t see out the window. The more distractions the better.
melts to death in chinese car lithium explosion
Lots of BYD and MG4 here in Australia. Never heard of such incident here.
Makes you wonder how much is real and how much is keyboard warriors shitting their pants at China’s rise and need to find excuses to make them feel better.
Note that ALL BYDs and the 51kwh MG battery pack are LFP - which is a much more stable chemistry. Has more recharge cycles. But also substantially less prone to catching fire in a crash.
Tesla handed the car industry to China on a silver platter. Not just did they dumb down interiors so that any material and quality advantage Europe has to China was gone, they also got rid of the technicalities of an ICE.
And then the world decided to give these cars subsidies so that China could take this advantage further. Crazy
Nationalism and country disputes are also most reason why Japanese automakers and Hyundai sales only going worse, so they seem very difficult to stay in China.
VW still has chances to stay in China, but they really need to push harder in their EV effort.
Nationalism and country disputes are also most reason
If that’s the case Tesla wouldn’t be doing so well there.
It really is just because the Japanese and Koreans don’t have any value proposition in the Chinese market anymore.
They have neither the prestige of the European/American luxury brands nor the value and technology of domestic Chinese OEMs.
is it though? BYD will soon overtake Tesla at least in China. The OP’s nationalism arguement still stands
Ford F-series is the best selling car in the US but that doesn’t mean Americans are nationalistic when it comes to cars.
BYDs are cheaper and are designed for the Chinese market, it’s a matter of time before they over take Tesla, a premium brand.
There are just no other non-premium EV brand on the planet that’s competitive.
If you wanna talk about pick-ups Ford F-series, Silverdoe and Ram all comfortably outsell Tundra and Tacoma
BYD is overtaking Tesla because they sell cars in every segment going up to entry level luxury while Tesla only sells entry level luxury and up cars.
It’s weird how luxury brand like Audi and Mercedes now feel like old and unmodern. I know it’s not like that but their ev is lacking design. I love Mercedes c and e class design but their ev is straight up ugly.
Idk how it looks in china, but I still do not see an EV as practical. Between charging times, and unknown dependability, im going to stay gas for the time being. One day, im sure, il be in an ev. But probably not for 10 to 20 years considering my current car is 20 years old
Not everyone’s use case is the same, so YMMV, but for most people it works just fine.
charging times
You plug in when you get home and leave it overnight. In the morning you’re full. This takes less effort than ever going to a gas station. Since it charges while you sleep, who cares if it takes 2 hours or 8. For fast charging, most modern EVs can go 20 to 80% full in about 30 minutes - and that will get you another 200-300 km (120-180mi) of driving. By the time you go poop and get a coffee - you’re ready to go for another 3 hours until your next poop/coffee break. It’s not THAT bad for that once a year roadie you do.
and unknown dependability
Theoretically, it’s better. Fewer moving parts to go wrong. A regular Lithium ion battery is good for around 800 cycles, give or take. An LFP battery will do 2000. Assuming 1 full charge will get you through a week of commutes, maybe another charge for your sunday funday, and let’s throw in 4 more for a regional road trip. That’s 110 charges per year – that’s 18 years. Most manufacturers will also give you an 8 year warranty on the battery, just in case. That is quite reasonable. Everything else is exactly the same as your old car.
VW is so slow to react. Since the moment the id3 and id4 were released buyers said they hated the capacitive controls, but it took VW a year to acknowledge the issue and then it’ll take another two for them to fix it, rather than just swapping the capacitive steering wheel controls for the button controls from the lower trims right away.
China’s leading the way (along with several US startups such as Tesla, Rivian, Lucid).
Drove VW’s ID.4 and was extremely disappointed given the price point. Nearly $50k, manual seats, smallish screens for an EV, sunroof optional, power liftgate optional, etc. plus the whole crappy dealer experience. The game has changed and I’m not sure that most of the traditional automakers have figured it out.
I meam most of them are starting to pull out of the ev game. Plus its peoples preference, like i couldnt stand getting a tesla. I hate touchscreens in cars, its asinine.
Typical German car nickel and diming for every feature.
So much for “the people’s car”
the launch edition ID3 only had speakers in the front, none in the back. This is a 40,000+ eur vehicle and it was the special edition launch model.
The last car I saw with that in the states was my college roommate’s base model 1996 Civic CX hatchback with manual steering
Can’t even play Cuphead on the infotainment system