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VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

electrek.co

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#11

I wish. I'd pay a lot if someone would make a good e-version of a "boring" car like a Golf. No huge center-mounted display, no app store, no forced remote updates, no DRM locking me out of reparing my own car. If they keep the sensors for partially automated driving as a better cruise control, I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, the current e-Golf is just a regular Golf poorly converted to electric, way too expensive…

This. I'm also waiting for this. A Golf with electric range as much as a Tesla, with supercharging like charging capabilities will be the best...

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#12
post #6

I'm sure Tesla will also have EVs as good as Tesla for half the price by 2020. They'll also have a vastly improved super charger network, a mature software ecosystem, a mature direct sales/servicing model, and whatever else they dream up like Powerwall and other systems that can potentially add value to the whole. VW will just be scratching the surface by 2020 while Tesla will likely continue sprinting ahead.

Sure but VW produces 10 Million a year. Tesla 100k. VW hast way more: experience, capacity, people, money. They can probably do that.

And $250 billion of revenue as a group annually. But that doesn’t help - if Tesla platformized the software with a developer program, the adoption rate would be astronomical and that lockin would be hard to defeat, same as the iPhone. The car will be the same as mobile phone hardware. The question is can Vw pull that off? They can certainly make the cars.

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#13

It is funny when competitors mention: "We will take a currently winning product X and deliver 2X by some future date Y." Imagine if competitors actually said: "We will first catch up to X by some date before Y. Then we will hit 2X by Y".

Not much need for “catching up” rhetorics when currently 100x more new car buyers decide to buy a VW than a Tesla.

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#14

I wish. I'd pay a lot if someone would make a good e-version of a "boring" car like a Golf. No huge center-mounted display, no app store, no forced remote updates, no DRM locking me out of reparing my own car. If they keep the sensors for partially automated driving as a better cruise control, I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, the current e-Golf is just a regular Golf poorly converted to electric, way too expensive…

Which model? A couple of years ago I got an e-Golf and it's been pretty amazing. I say that as someone who owned 2 (petrol) Golfs prior. I got it cheaper than any previous Golf and it had more features too. I understand range anxiety, but the same holds (at the same price) with other marks (I've also owned a Leaf). What makes the e-Golf poorly converted and too expensive?

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#15

It is funny when competitors mention: "We will take a currently winning product X and deliver 2X by some future date Y." Imagine if competitors actually said: "We will first catch up to X by some date before Y. Then we will hit 2X by Y".

Not much need for “catching up” rhetorics when currently 100x more new car buyers decide to buy a VW than a Tesla.

VW are selling 100x as many EVs as Tesla? Really? Do you have a source for this claim?

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#16
post #6

I'm sure Tesla will also have EVs as good as Tesla for half the price by 2020. They'll also have a vastly improved super charger network, a mature software ecosystem, a mature direct sales/servicing model, and whatever else they dream up like Powerwall and other systems that can potentially add value to the whole. VW will just be scratching the surface by 2020 while Tesla will likely continue sprinting ahead.

Sure but VW produces 10 Million a year. Tesla 100k. VW hast way more: experience, capacity, people, money. They can probably do that.

At the current Model 3 production rates (>50k/quarter), Tesla is on track of producing 230-250k cars this year, 350k cars next year, more if they raise the production speed further.

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#17

I wish. I'd pay a lot if someone would make a good e-version of a "boring" car like a Golf. No huge center-mounted display, no app store, no forced remote updates, no DRM locking me out of reparing my own car. If they keep the sensors for partially automated driving as a better cruise control, I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, the current e-Golf is just a regular Golf poorly converted to electric, way too expensive…

That is the one thing I give to VW: their first new electric car is going to be the NEO, which is basically a Golf done from scratch as an electric car. If they can get it into production numbers high enough for the promised prices, it could be the electric car for the masses.

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not much need for “catching up” rhetorics when currently 100x more new car buyers decide to buy a VW than a Tesla.

VW are selling 100x as many EVs as Tesla? Really? Do you have a source for this claim?

That's not the claim they made, and you're willfully ignoring that detail.

Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’

#19

I wish. I'd pay a lot if someone would make a good e-version of a "boring" car like a Golf. No huge center-mounted display, no app store, no forced remote updates, no DRM locking me out of reparing my own car. If they keep the sensors for partially automated driving as a better cruise control, I'm fine with that. Unfortunately, the current e-Golf is just a regular Golf poorly converted to electric, way too expensive…

> no DRM locking me out of reparing my own car

That's going to be nearly impossible to avoid in the future. I do some software work for one automaker and every 2019+ model has a firewall on the data bus. It's not because they want to lock you out of repairing your car, it's because the pen testing and Defcon hacking has been accelerating over the past few years and they don't want headlines that say their cars can be hacked. That's bad for sales. They'll lose sales from guys like you too of course -- your concern is certainly valid, but more people are concerned about the security of their car than being able to repair it themselves.

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