This will be painful because a lot of jobs and export profits depend on car manufacturers. Each job at a factory creates more jobs for suppliers, logistics, demands of the people working at and near the plant and so on.
However it’s no surprise, they ignored electric cars for more than 10 years and pretended they can keep building expensive petrol powered SUVs forever, and people just buy it because of a “made in Germany” label.
VW went to shit long before electric cars became usable. They ceased building reliable, affordable, and repairable everyday cars in favour of targeting the international upscale market by exploitig their hard earned reputation for quality some time in the mid 2000s. In order to increase profits, they did, however, constantly reduce actual quality in favour of flashy gimmicks. This will only work for so long, because at some point, your reputation is ruined and you run out of wealthy idiots who will still buy your scrap.
I grew up with VW cars from the 1980s and '90s. I miss their quality and simplicity. If anything broke on them, you could often fix it yourself with a relatively limited mechanical skillset and toolbox.
Same for BMW and Mercedes. They went from expensive aspirational cars to lease and dump specials.
Yes, the other German manufacturers went the same route.
This will be painful because a lot of jobs and export profits depend on car manufacturers. Each job at a factory creates more jobs for suppliers, logistics, demands of the people working at and near the plant and so on.
However it’s no surprise, they ignored electric cars for more than 10 years and pretended they can keep building expensive petrol powered SUVs forever, and people just buy it because of a “made in Germany” label.
VW went to shit long before electric cars became usable. They ceased building reliable, affordable, and repairable everyday cars in favour of targeting the international upscale market by exploitig their hard earned reputation for quality some time in the mid 2000s. In order to increase profits, they did, however, constantly reduce actual quality in favour of flashy gimmicks. This will only work for so long, because at some point, your reputation is ruined and you run out of wealthy idiots who will still buy your scrap.
Holy shit that is so spot on.
Same for BMW and Mercedes. They went from expensive aspirational cars to lease and dump specials.
I grew up with VW cars from the 1980s and '90s. I miss their quality and simplicity. If anything broke on them, you could often fix it yourself with a relatively limited mechanical skillset and toolbox.
Yes, the other German manufacturers went the same route.
Why past tense? Do you want to take a guess what two of the plants planned for shutdown are producing exclusively? 😉
They ignored affordable, reliable EVs.
VW was built on the Beetle and the Golf.
https://www.automobil-produktion.de/news/vw-konkretisiert-produktionsende-in-vier-deutschen-werken/2729042
Why should someone’s right to participate in society be tied to their economic value?