Thread by @AukeHoekstra

THIS WEEK THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BECAME THE ENDGAME
Something really important happened this week: the German carmakers agreed that for the coming ten years, they will put all their cards on electric vehicles and they will not be shy about saying so anymore.
handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/in…

I think the rise of the electric vehicle (EV) was inevitable once it became clear that you could construct lightweight batteries that would outlast the car, while battery cost plus electricity would be much less than the cost of gasoline.

It's basically that simple.

Of course the success story behind that is the electric motor. It's basically the only alternative for the combustion engine that we know of and it's around four times more efficient. Oh and lighter, smaller, cheaper while not requiring maintenance.

Still, I've not been shy in saying history shows that market leaders seldom embrace the technology that will put their current cash-cows out of business. They usually go bankrupt. That's why @Tesla and @elonmusk where so important: they showed it could be done and sped things up.

But Tesla only produces few vehicles. We need the big boys on board. That's why it's so important that Ghosn showed leadership at Nissan and Renault. And that's why it's so important that China is now going all-out on EVs. But VW is still the biggest car maker in the world.

I was truly worried that the EU car market would pass up the opportunity to reshape itself. I now think #dieselgate hit Volkswagen so hard that it served as a rude but timely wake-up call. (beautifully captured by @Gardiner_Beth theguardian.com/environment/20…)

Which brings us to this week. On monday we learned that Diess, the CEO of @VWGroup "created division in the car industry" with his focus on EVs and charging infrastructure. He was "evaporating billions". Most German writers I read where horrified.
handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/in…

We learned it was actually "worse": Diess threatened Volkswagen would leave the powerful German car lobby VDA because VDA would not commit to an electric-vehicle-first strategy. VDA claimed there where many roads to Rome and the EV was just one.
cleanenergywire.org/news/volkswage…

This lead to heated talks with @BMW chef Harald Krueger. Krueger made very clear that BMW did not agree with Volkswagen faz.net/aktuell/wirtsc…
and it was interpreted as a collision course
welt.de/wirtschaft/art… or even "earthquake" (faz.net/aktuell/wirtsc…)

But one day later the row was over. Diess reiterated that not choosing a technology ("technologieoffenheit") was the wrong message (businessinsider.de/vw-daimler-und…) and after a crisis phonecall on wednesday (handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/in…) they agreed:

The German car makers will say clearly that in the coming ten years, the electric vehicle should be the leading technology ("leittechnology"). And in a linkedin post Diess was crystal clear (ht @colinmckerrache) linkedin.com/pulse/leittech…

This, ladies and gentlemen is history in the making.

I think future history books will say this was when it became clear that age of the combustion engine was over and the age of the electric car truly began.

And for me it's the biggest told-you-so-moment of the last 10 years!

And for people making this @elonmusk/@Tesla vs @VWGroup: Elon liked this thread praising VW and Diess because he knows this is not about carmaker vs carmaker but about EVs vs big oil, about 'trying to be useful' and about leaving this planet in good shape for our children.