But will they sneak a diesel engine in the trunk?
VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
21–30 of 85 posts
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#22At first I thought this is an unusually short news article. Took me a while to figure out that scrolling on this page is broken unless you enable javascript. Looks like the reason is that it needs Googles amp code to function. It's hillarious that Google gets away bloating the web with crap and selling us that as a way to make it more lightweight. Flagging it for this reason. I think we should not support AMP here on…
Try the uMatrix browser plugin. No cross domain javascript is loaded by default, and it's super configurable. I was able to read this page, but the map and some other content was blocked.
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#23I 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…
Why firewall prevents repair? IPtables on my Linux box does not prevent me from replacing a memory or resolder failed capacitor. It's like completely different layers.
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#24I'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.
I remember when Nokia used the same defense against apple in 2007.
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#25Elon Musk: “Do it.”
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#26I'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.
Not sure. They did not really deliver on the Model 3 initial price, since most models are sold with the more expensive options. And if I remember correctly the price paid by the consumer depends on government subsidies as well to promote EVs.
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but VW produces 10 Million a year. Tesla 100k. VW hast way more: experience, capacity, people, money. They can probably do that.
VW produces 10 million regular ICE cars a year. It will take time to shift an entire entrenched organizational culture to focus on EVs...and not just making them, but to make ones that are truly without compromise ("as good as Tesla"). These things aren't easy at all, though it might be tempting to think that it's just a matter of resources. Microsoft had all the resources in the world and still couldn't pull off Bin…
I think you'll find that what VW cares most about is selling cars, not selling ICE cars. If someone proves the market for electric cars viable (thanks Tesla!), VW will not have trouble convincing themselves to make some.
In fact, the Audi e-tron is coming out soon and it is based on one of the most popular VW group compact crossovers, which is a much hotter market segment than sedans.
I know a lot of Tesla owners and they don't rely on superchargers when they travel. They just drive one of their other cars, or fly. The superchargers are not as big of an advantage as they seem to be, especially in urban areas where they are overcrowded. Futhermore, they are not free for owners of the Model 3, and usage is free only under certain limits for owners of other Tesla models: https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharging
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but VW produces 10 Million a year. Tesla 100k. VW hast way more: experience, capacity, people, money. They can probably do that.
VW produces 10 million regular ICE cars a year. It will take time to shift an entire entrenched organizational culture to focus on EVs...and not just making them, but to make ones that are truly without compromise ("as good as Tesla"). These things aren't easy at all, though it might be tempting to think that it's just a matter of resources. Microsoft had all the resources in the world and still couldn't pull off Bin…
I agree with your other points but not with the charger network one.
What do you mean by multi-decade infrastructure investment? It hasn't taken Tesla multiple decades to spin theirs up. If you mean it's a multi-decade commitment, well sure, but it's very clear at this point that VW (and others) are going to make that commitment.
Also, it seems rather likely that actually there will be a much better commodity charger network, running on an open standard, set up. Seems unthinkable that it wouldn't be the case, actually, probably even legally enforced by regulation if necessary - though it will probably just make economic sense for all manufacturers to agree to this and evolve naturally.
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but VW produces 10 Million a year. Tesla 100k. VW hast way more: experience, capacity, people, money. They can probably do that.
VW produces 10 million regular ICE cars a year. It will take time to shift an entire entrenched organizational culture to focus on EVs...and not just making them, but to make ones that are truly without compromise ("as good as Tesla"). These things aren't easy at all, though it might be tempting to think that it's just a matter of resources. Microsoft had all the resources in the world and still couldn't pull off Bin…
> VW produces 10 million regular ICE cars a year.
Yes, VW knows how to build cars, and manage all the aspects of the process, both technical and political, with plants spread through multiple countries continents.
And VW knows how to do that at scale.
> It will take time to shift an entire entrenched organizational culture to focus on EVs...
That assertion makes no sense, specially because VW does not need to switch the focus of anything. It's another power plant with a particular set of requirements, and VW is already handling those for decades and at much larger scale.
And production-wise, VW is orders of magnitude more capable and experienced in handling entirely different production processes.
Let's put things into perspective: Tesla is currently redlining its production process, including resorting to tents to perform ad-hoc extensions to the company's plant, just to reach 1% of VW's current production capacity, and currently VW is actually scrambling to keep entire factories with a residual production line for non-technical or economical reasons.
Re: VW CEO says they’ll have ‘EVs as good as Tesla’s for half the price by 2020’
#30I can’t speak for others, but personally I wouldn’t entertain the purchase of a VW or anything from the VW Group after the dieselgate fiasco - regardless of whether it’s electric or not.