VW EV sales tops Tesla in Germany
- Thread starter TheLastWord
- Start date
Nice!! Now lets see how long they keep the title.
The bigger story is that the competition in first, third, fourth and fifth together doubled Tesla’s sales and will continue to overcome Tesla. It was all a matter of time.
As we saw in January '23 Tesla has a lot of pricing flexibility so we'll see how long it lasts.
VW can and will build cars with superior fit, finish and paint.
Thank you, Ive been preaching this since the beginning of time in here *LOL*
Tesla is nothing in a sea of auto production except for one thing. They came out with a different engine and made it popular, the electric engine and battery pack.
Its just like a new pair of Jeans in the 1960's and 70's The new designer jeans take the market by storm but then the legacy makers produce the same product and all of a sudden the "new jeans" become the same product everyone else sells.
Retail is a *****, way more so today. Tesla has nothing that the other automakers arent now starting to make. But Tesla is sorely lacking what the other makers already have ICE engines. The world is not going to be all electric and the EV market WILL end up like the FLAT PANEL TV and Computer monitor market. Market saturation, over production of EVs and consumers will rule, they wont be stuck with Tesla if they want an EV.
Some of the new models are awesome looking compared to the same look of the Tesla year after year. I do think they can carve out a notch with that style, honestly I not saying this to be nasty but it reminds me of the VW Beatle only in an EV version. The Beatle was a well liked car, it still is, heck I like them too. But to think Tesla will rule the world is a misgiven thought. Day by day they lose market share, lose profit margin, the big boys are coming. In fact two companies (one of which is a division of GM) operate driverless taxis in San Fransico, almost Tesla's home town. Thing is those driverless taxis are not Tesla's ... just an example of the competition coming.
On more thing, Tesla will be sunk at the snap of a finger if a confrontation with China comes about. I dont see it happening but to think it's impossible, well I got a bridge to sell you.
PS. I have nothing against Tesla, I am talking retailing here. An automobile is the retail business, major companies around the world make them, its nothing new in over 100 years, just a different verision and soon will have the same engine as Tesla for people who want it. Plus unlike Tesla showrooms on every corner in the USA.
Ps. truly successful companies proudly display their sales numbers from various markets but those companies where it might be a disadvantage do not. Tesla does NOT report USA sales numbers. They are estimates from outside companies. I wish them enough success that one day they may report. I have nothing against them, if I am no longer on this earth in 5 years, come back in here and reply that I was wrong. Maybe I will be able to read it from whatever special place I am in.
Ps. the new electric VWs are gorgeous I wish them well. I do think anything is a roll of the dice though. They all will have issues, one thing Tesla has with this type of engine is a 10 year head start in many cases.
Let's not forget the electric grid, broken beyond belief its not going to magically be better anytime soon.
Last edited:
EV in the EU sales 30% below forecast, WV has closed 3 factories and laid-off 4,000 employees,
that shows you where EV sales are going, doesn't really matter the brand.
that shows you where EV sales are going, doesn't really matter the brand.
I doubt that is an EV specific shortfall though. I'm sure it's across the board w/ ICE & EV.
Im having a rough time finding anything in the EU reports on this taking place. States roughly 1 in 5 cars sales are EVs.
Do you have a link or source? Sometimes it's hard to get the most current information even if you put in the year. But I still cant find anything except I do see some references that VW states things for them arent as robust as they predicted. (or something like that)
europe-plugin-car-sales-april2023
I'm sure they can, but my experience here in the USA is that they don't on their everyday cars. I've owned a few VW's, rented a great many, and they are generally cheap and troublesome. My last VW TDI was such a handful, left us stranded 3x. Never, not once with any other make, have I experienced a new car with so many problems. I swore off VW due to that.
My last Jetta rental started out the week sounding fine, and had a death-rattle under the hood, by the week's end. Got 40+ MPG though. I especially enjoyed the ultra cheap dashboard with what looked to be printed paper dials for speedo and tach.
Good for VW; Germany is a big market. Hopefully, with the benefit of economies of scale, they didn't lose to many billion$ on their EV business.
I wonder what the European totals YTD are? Of course WW it isn't even a contest.
I wonder what the European totals YTD are? Of course WW it isn't even a contest.
No it was EV specific. The reasons given were Much higher purchase price, depreciation 50% after 2 yrs, Battery life and replacement cost. All factors that are appearing now after a few years, now this was in the UK, but I'm sure it applies throughout. I was surprised as I thought that IF it would work anywhere it would have worked in the EU as the distances are much shorter.
Alas no, I stumbled upon this report in a UK publication a couple of weeks ago.
While I'm not impressed with VW's EV offerings so far, we get so few in the US I haven't had a chance to try the ones that would interest me. I hope they're actually good and that they figure out how to make it really good for the next GTI. I found the ID.4 to be merely ok and inoffensive, but that's not what I look for in a car. I'll be disappointed if the longest running hot hatch on the market dies a horrible death after this GTI generation. I've already heard talk that the manual dies and it goes hybrid for the Mk8.5 refresh. That is not what I want. I'm debating buying a Mk8 so I can get a new one before they go away. It'll probably be the last manual car I can get that'll be a great fit for my daily use.
USA or worldwide?
Ok, its just everything I read, all available on line says EV sales are strong in the UK/EU
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-july-new-car-sales-up-more-than-25-smmt-2023-08-04/
https://insideevs.com/news/680372/uk-plugin-car-sales-july2023/
OK< FOUND SOMETHING AS TO WHAT YOU WERE SAYING! Interesting and yet conflicts with the above... I do believe EV sales will wither over time but not for 5 to 10 years ... maybe?
Anyway, this maybe what you saw about VW. Very interesting, some of the story does say with USA production the overseas production was affected but yeah, surprised to read this, actually shocked to read this so soon ... learn something new every day on BITOG *LOL(*
https://www.electrive.com/2023/06/27/vw-slows-down-ev-production-in-emden/
VW's $700M Deal with XPeng.
Slowing production due to slower sales makes good business sense unlike the Big 2 that keep cranking vehicles out no matter what.
The ideal production setup is a flexible one that can assemble any vehicle on the same line with the flexibility of increasing production on particular models if demand goes up. Some automobile companies have this capability.
Apparently worldwide according to what I read. I was hoping for an 8.5 refresh similar to the 7.5. A little freshening up but no major changes. I’m sure it’ll be more power with the hybrid but the powertrain mentioned is already used in Audi products and doesn’t have a manual. It was already speculated that the manual would die with this refresh before the hybrid news was released. I already still prefer my interior to the Mk8 so I just might keep mine and start modifying next year. I was planning suspension and wheels already but once out of warranty I’ll likely tune it and remove the front resonator.