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

electrek.co

41–50 of 85 posts

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

#41

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.

When EV gets popular enough won't all petrol station install chargers too? When this happens the super charger network will not be a large advantage. The only issue I see is if each company creates it's own "super/fast" charging system and DRMs it for "security" reasons.

> When EV gets popular enough won't all petrol station install chargers too?

More importantly, when EVs get popular we'll obviously see new power supply stations everywhere, and they may not comply with today's notion of a gas station. We'll see for example EV-specific stations such as rest areas or highway diners or shopping centers or autosilos or private parking spots that provide that service while drivers go on with their lives. These actually already exist, but as the number of EV cars is so small in comparison to ICE cars that they are barely noticeable.

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

#42

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.

When EV gets popular enough won't all petrol station install chargers too? When this happens the super charger network will not be a large advantage. The only issue I see is if each company creates it's own "super/fast" charging system and DRMs it for "security" reasons.

In that case, I foresee another wave of dongles.

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

#43
post #7

At 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.

I do use uMatrix and love it.

If you were able to read it without js, the reason is probably that HN meanwhile changed the link to the non-amp version.

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

#44
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.

Tesla is a battery company.

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

#45
post #44
post #6

Earlier 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.

Tesla is a battery company.

I think you spelled Panasonic wrong.

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

#46

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.

I drove VW eGolf recently. Under the hood one clearly see that VW treats electrical cars as nuisance. The was a lot of empty space and a mess of cables. That is, VM still designed a car that was essentially a IC car with the engine removed and the battery stuffed under the back seats. If VM manages to change that in 2 years, then great. But they have a lot of cultural inertia to overcome.

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

#47

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.

When EV gets popular enough won't all petrol station install chargers too? When this happens the super charger network will not be a large advantage. The only issue I see is if each company creates it's own "super/fast" charging system and DRMs it for "security" reasons.

Maybe some stations will have charging lobbies, where you can charge your phone and take a nap (charge yourself) while the car charges.

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

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

> A Golf with electric range as much as a Tesla, with supercharging like charging capabilities will be the best... VW's e-golf is advertised as having a 140 mile range. It's noticeably lower than Tesla's advertised range of 200 mile but as it's a city car designed for the european market I'm not sure it's relevant. I mean, in some european countries that's more than enough to drive through the entire nation.

The Model 3's advertised long range is 310 miles.

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

#49

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…

I'm still looking for a plug-in Camry or Tacoma.

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

#50

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…

Oh, automakers are finally putting security on their wide-open Car Area Networks - like the one that let a hacker stop a reporter's car - and this you see as only a bad thing?
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