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stekkerauto 🚗⚡️ Profile picture
stekkerauto 🚗⚡️
@stekkerauto
„If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more” - E.Shinseki 🇺🇸 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 $TSLA tuna.
Jan 20 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
my brother just checked out a VW ID.7 at the dealership.
he went through the infotainment interface, and I have questions...

"no data. only with ignition switched on" 🧠
this is an atrocity
charge "planning" 🤯Image
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Image VW ID.7 POIs are littered with every available brand of gas station 🤯😠

- "ignition", gas stations - the car seems to think it's a gas car.
and for good measure, Seat, Skoda and Cupra dealers are listed, too.Image
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Oct 2, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
potentially big news:

Volkswagen's software subsidiary Cariad, hires Sanjay Lal, a former executive from Google, Tesla, and Cisco, to develop a new software platform for the company. Lal is known for his expertise in software-defined vehicles, with over 25 years of experience 🧵 in software architecture + infotainment.

This move is a departure for VW, which has traditionally focused on recruiting software talents from German-speaking countries. The hiring reflects Cariad's effort to overhaul its software architecture & rebuild its unified software 2.0.
Sep 1, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
BMW CEO Zipse:

“And where do people charge all those EVs? There will be no nationwide infrastructure for EVs in Europe in 2035.
Do you think that in 12 years, in regions like southern Italy, there will be charging stations in every village?”

🧵

would you buy an EV from a company whose CEO says things like above?

on the one hand, he says EVs are BMW’s growth engine.
on the other, he badmouths EVs whenever he can.
Sep 1, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
1/5 BMW CEO, Oliver Zipse, criticizes German industrial policy ahead of the IAA car fair in Munich. He believes the political mandate to phase out combustion engines is reckless, fearing a lack of electric car infrastructure across Europe by 2035. 2/5 Zipse also highlights the absence of key raw materials like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths in Europe for mass production of electric vehicles. This reliance on external sources makes Europe politically vulnerable, he claims.
Aug 17, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
we have officially entered the Valley of Death™ 🎩 @jpr007

Volkswagen's decision to raise prices on certain ICE models amidst sluggish sales is a strategic move driven by the need to enhance profitability and contribute to the company's financial goals.

1/ 🧵 Despite internal resistance and market challenges, the company appears committed to this approach, possibly as a means of offsetting rising costs and aligning with its long-term financial objectives.

(see detailed summary)

2/
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Aug 12, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
In China's megacities, the auto market is now very different. Classic brands from Germany/Japan/Korea lost dominance. Most EVs are local. Per Int'l Energy Agency, over half of EVs worldwide are in China, which has 60% of global EV sales. 1/4 Through July, China produced 13.4M vehicles, 4.6M were EVs incl plug-in hybrids - up 40% vs last year. In 1H 2022, China produced about as many EVs as total expected for all of Germany in 2022, including combustion vehicles. 2/4
Aug 10, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Major shift for Audi: For decades, its China joint ventures built models with technology developed in Germany.

Now Audi is handing over control of key parts of the vehicles to its Chinese partners, including the platform and digital systems.

1/ https://t.co/nGvEMeASUZ
Image The new EVs are expected to cost far less to develop than models designed in Germany.

Audi is planning a radical new joint venture in China to regain lost ground in the world's largest car market.
2/
Jul 25, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Mercedes CEO Källenius in today’s Handelsblatt interview:

“We’re doubling down on EVs”

Mercedes-Benz plans to increase its investment in the development and production of EVs in response to sluggish sales of EVs in China and Germany. 🧵⬇️ The company aims to sell only pure EVs by 2030, as it expects an exponential growth in the EV market in the coming years. CEO Källenius believes that those who don’t have competitive EVs in their product line could be at risk. 2/x (summary in screenshots) Image
Jul 19, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
“The core problem is that German automakers are simply not producing compelling electric cars - they are either too expensive, not technologically competitive, or both.”

scathing 🎯 opinion on the 🇩🇪 auto industry by @RTyborski https://t.co/1Zl0gCHHqL
Image “ Demanding the government extend or increase EV subsidies borders on satirical given these missteps. Why reward management failures with taxpayer money?”
Jul 17, 2023 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Europe's auto industry has shrunk significantly compared to pre-pandemic times.

Major brands like VW, Audi, BMW and Mercedes produced around 500,000 fewer cars in Europe from January-May 2023 vs the same period in 2019 - a nearly 20% decline.

🧵 1/9 Automakers face a drastically changed market environment. Lockdowns, chip shortages, and supply chain issues had constrained production from 2020-2022. But now supply chains are restored, yet demand is lacking. 2/
Jun 21, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
manager magazin:

“Volkswagen has so far largely failed in its attempt to transform itself from the world's largest automaker into a leading tech and software company. Immediately after taking office, Group CEO Oliver Blume elevated the crisis-ridden software subsidiary Cariad… …to one of his central projects, giving it a new structure and leadership. But Cariad is still far behind schedule. And apparently confidence in the ‘drama subsidiary’ is so low that Blume is now launching a solo breakout:
Jun 16, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
So @BMW is running ads in the 🇩🇪 press for their iX Hydrogen.

just… WHY?

It also says that it’s a not-for-sale pure concept car.

QR takes you to bmw.de/de/topics/fasz… Image "Hydrogen is the missing piece of the puzzle for emission-free mobility, because a single technology will not be enough to enable climate-neutral mobility worldwide." - BMW CEO Oliver Zipse
Jun 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
if you can’t beat ‘em…

Politico:

Brussels is under pressure to impose restrictions on Chinese electric cars, over fears that imports are flooding the European market at a speed and scale that threaten the Continent’s own production of such vehicles. The Commission’s trade defense unit, led by Denis Redonnet, the “chief trade enforcer,” is now discussing whether to launch an investigation that could allow the EU to impose additional levies or restrictions, known as anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations”
Jun 15, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume is doubling down on the company's electric strategy with its own gigafactory for battery cells, which will produce batteries for up to 200,000 cars per year. The company plans to invest over a billion € with a capacity of 20 GWh/year with a focus on high-performance cells for sports cars. The company's previous joint venture partner, Customcells, will be bought out, and Porsche's subsidiary, Cellforce, will take over the project.
Jun 12, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
VW Group CEO Blume’s restructuring plan for VW includes weeding out models and trims.

medium term, VW is to have 10 models, Skoda about half that, and Cupra “three, four really awesome cars”.

good move imo. brand CEOs of VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat etc. will be expected to go along, in order to increase VW’s competitiveness - or else. in the past, the defense of their respective fiefdoms put the brakes on necessary changes.
Jun 4, 2023 • 14 tweets • 2 min read
Sunday Times absolutely tearing the VW ID.5 to shreds 😬

some quotes:

The German manufacturer used to make great cars. How has it come up with something so ugly and impractical?

thetimes.co.uk/article/drivin… The real problem, however, is that ID.5 inherits the dashboard controls of other current Volkswagens and these are, it cannot be overstated, absolutely awful.
May 23, 2023 • 6 tweets • 5 min read
“the VW restructuring case - the real details of the Wolfsburg drama”

job cuts und billions in savings/cuts - how brand boss Thomas Schäfer plans to save a german industry icon The problems of the core brand are endangering the world's largest car company. Now, brand boss Thomas Schäfer is taking radical action: He must increase earnings by around 8 billion euros, and more than 10,000 jobs are at stake. Even the closure of plants is no longer taboo.
Mar 31, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
car production in 🇩🇪 has declined by more than 36% over the past decade, with car manufacturers producing only 3.6 million cars in 2022 compared to 5.6 million in 2012. Economists and industry representatives attribute the decline to high wages, taxes, and energy prices in Germany and anticipate further relocations, with the electric car boom exacerbating the trend.
Mar 27, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
German OEMs seem to be ready to concede to tech companies:

“if you can’t beat them, join them!”

It is starting to dawn on carmakers that they don’t have the capability to write their own software.
They are opening up to the idea for deeper cooperation with Google and Apple.

🧵 There is talk of “blended eco systems”, which would limit the perceived loss of control over OEM data and functions.

So far, OEMs have concentrated largely on homegrown software.
Mercedes has promised a “Windows for the car”.

It hasn’t worked.
Mar 25, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
you can’t make this up:

Toyota’s 𝗹𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝘆𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗲𝗻 ‘𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻-𝗻𝗲𝘂𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹’ 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲 Corolla racer won't be racing this weekend.
Why, you may ask?

A fire caused by a hydrogen leak & the thing went up in flames. Image Toyota’s belief in Hydrogen fuel cell cars is peak silly, but running cars on liquefied hydrogen is next-level stupid.

all those engineering hours would be better applied transitioning the company to EVs, @Toyota
Mar 21, 2023 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Why German car companies are heading for an electric disaster

German car bosses didn’t believe in electric mobility for too long - and thus risked the future of their corporations.
The realization may come too late.

The story of a management debacle

manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/au… this 12/2022 article is a good read:

Dithering has characterized the culture for years. Why damage margins as long as gasoline and diesel cars are bringing in vast sums of money? Why take seemingly incalculable risks, both business and personal, when shareholders can still