Thread by @jpr007

Now it's a matter of survival for the VDA

Germany's car industry association VDA is at loggerheads with its most important member, the Volkswagen Group

On the surface, it's about membership fees, but in fact it's about everything for the VDA
wiwo.de/unternehmen/au…

The dispute is remarkable

VDA versus Volkswagen

Germany's car industry association against Germany's largest car company

The VDA wants to increase the contributions from its members, Volkswagen does not want to go along

VW, however, is not concerned with money but with principle :

VW boss Herbert Diess does not see why he should throw money at an association which, from VW's point of view, is useless and sometimes even damaging to its business

While Volkswagen finally wants to see a car industry that leaves the internal combustion engine behind, marches unitedly towards the electric car and sees tough climate protection regulations as an opportunity and not as a threat . . .

. . . the VDA plays the supreme saviour of the internal combustion engine

The association fights with verve for e-fuels, i.e. synthetic fuels that can theoretically be used to run internal combustion engines in a climate-friendly way . . .

. . . and continues to fuel hopes for hydrogen cars, which are supposed to be a much better solution than battery-electric drives at some point

The association calls this view of the car world "technology openness"

Car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer calls it "an attempt to conserve the past"

From VW's point of view, the VDA message is extremely damaging to business, because it tells drivers :

- "better not to buy an e-car, but wait for a better future"

To politicians it says :

- "be careful with the promotion of e-cars, they are not the last word in wisdom either"

And the not entirely small internal combustion faction in the VW Group feels vindicated :

- the electric trend, they hope, could pass them by

It doesn't take much imagination to see how Diess, who has chained the fate of the entire group to the battery-electric drive, feels about his own industry association torpedoing his course in this way

The question arises as to who the VDA with its "openness to technology" is actually fighting for today

VW, Audi, Porsche and Daimler are no longer open on this issue, but have clearly focused on the e-car

So has virtually every other major carmaker in this world

Even BMW, where they still flirt with being open to technology, the battery car now clearly dominates their future strategy

It is only the car suppliers who expect their association to put the brakes on the electric trend and build back doors for combustion engines

Those who make diesel and petrol engines, gearboxes and exhaust systems are threatened by the e-car - not the carmakers, who could care less how their cars are powered

So what does the VDA want to be ?

- the association of the car industry, of the car manufacturers or of the suppliers ?

The lobbyists around President Hildegard Müller are sitting between all chairs

In this situation, of all things, money is running short because the previous main source of income, the IAA motor show, no longer really wants to bubble up

The last trade fair in 2019 already showed signs of disintegration

The next one - planned for September 2021 in Munich - is controversial among the association's members, will have even fewer exhibitors and will probably generate even less revenue

That is why membership fees are now to rise

This is a welcome opportunity for Diess to demonstrate publicly where the hammer is hanging :

The association only has as much money and influence as its members allow it to have

"We have to focus. Technology openness is the wrong slogan now"

Herbert Diess said that in 2018

A lot has happened since then

Court rulings against the German government and against Shell have shown that companies need a solid and fast path to climate neutrality, otherwise they will become victims of the global climate protection drive

This can only be achieved with e-cars and not with nebulous and unpromising e-fuels and hydrogen ideas.

Above all, however, it has now become clear: e-cars, although technically still in the very early stages of their development, are already the better cars

Once a year, the ADAC publishes its list of best cars, i.e. the cars that have performed best in the ADAC car test

In the test, the vehicles are put through their paces

For a fortnight, the test engineers deal with each vehicle, more than 300 points are examined, from technology and safety to handling and costs

- 95 models were examined in 2020, including classics like the Golf (diesel), BMW 3 Series (diesel) and the Mercedes C-Class (petrol)

Do you know who tops the best list ?

- not these classics

- it's the Audi e-tron and the Porsche Taycan

- two electric cars from Germany

- If you want to buy the best car on the market, buy an e-car

- not someday, when the oft-mentioned transformation of the car industry is over

- but today

The die is cast

The carmakers can go electric and they can become so climate-friendly that they finally no longer have to fear climate protection

Germany's car industry does not need technological openness but technological clarity, says Diess

Those who know him know that he will also demand this clarity from his industry association

Given the real balance of power, the result is likely to be a VDA on VW's course

Or a VDA without its most important member, which no one will really take seriously any more