The Startling Debacle Of Germany’s Electric Cars
By Paul Homewood
Pierre Gosselin brings news on how electric cars are struggling to get off the ground in Germany.
The skeptic European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) here brings our attention to a documentary on electric cars by German flagship ARD public television broadcast recently.
German auto industry risks skidding out of control. Photo credit: BMW.
The news on the electric car situation in Germany does not look good. As it turns out that the government and industry are not really that serious about it, despite all the lofty green rhetoric.
In fact the ARD reports that Daimler has even stopped production of electric cars so that the production line could instead be used to produce regular internal combustion engine cars (ICEs) for deliveries to China and USA. So much for Daimler CEO’s pledge to “become a leader in electric cars.” In fact all German automotive CEOs posture as leaders in electric cars, but the reality is different.
Read the full report here.
The reasons that ARD list as to why hardly anybody wants to buy one are familiar to us all.
Meanwhile in the UK sales of electric cars still only account for a tiny proportion of the car market, despite generous taxpayer subsidies. Last year plug in sales only supplied 1.4% of the market.
https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/evs-and-afvs-registrations/
And data from the Department of Transport shows that there are still only 73000 electric cars on the road out of a total of 31.8 million, just 0.2%.
Although sales are still increasing year on year, I suspect that the market will soon reach saturation point, until the fundamental drawbacks are resolved.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Ah but the Government has a cunning plan, and we all know how well those go. According to the Green Paper ‘Building Our Industrial Strategy’, the Government “commits us to a programme of research and innovation in energy storage and other smart technologies which aligns with the work underway on designing a smart grid and the roll-out of public charging points for electric vehicles, and smart meters at homes and commercial premises” and “We are already testing the use of new grid technologies in various locations around the country in preparation for the shift to electric vehicles”. Not to mention “We are already testing the use of new grid technologies in various locations around the country in preparation for the shift to electric vehicles”. What could possibly go wrong with the Government plans?
The Green Paper is open to consultation, but will the Government take any notice of sensible responses? Based on past form, the answer is a resounding no.
I’ve been following Trump’s first few days on CNBC, it may be partly spin, but he seems to be transforming the US economy single-handed, what a contrast with the still-green UK govt, and with what Hillary would have done. Nothing about it on the MSM of course, still bleating about fake news, whatever eco-scare is in vogue, and whatever leftie outrage bus has just commenced its journey.
That is the reason why governments should never get involved in such things. Sensible ideas for new technology can get off the ground without government help and therefore don’t need it. That just leaves the stupid and impractical stuff, and no amount of taxpayers’ cash will ever make these work. Since it has long been government policy to close down power stations, what are these electric cars going to run on? Can’t come to work today boss, there’s no wind and it’s too cloudy.
With the Sinclair C5 you could pedal 😉
From: Neil Winton
Interesting story on German electric cars. Let down by quote from VW’s Winterkorn who was fired more than a year ago!
Regards
Neil
Forbes – http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilwinton/
European Perspective for Detroit News Online’s Autos Insider – http://www.detroitnews.com/section/auto01
http://www.wintonsworld.com
Graphic News http://www.graphicnews.com
It would be a better use of our tax pounds for them to take wads of £10 notes, shove ’em up their arses and set fire to them.
Amusing, at least.
I suspect the biggest motivation for purchasing an electric car in the UK is the avoidance of congestion charging.
And the smug satisfaction gained from knowing the poor who can’t afford a new car, have contributed £thousands to a rich person/company who can, via a grant towards its initial cost.
https://www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants/what-youll-get
Yep – isn’t that yet another example of the biggest movement of cash from the poor to the rich since tax was invented?
The sooner we can dry up the Green Blob the better!
I understand from’Gazette’ the organ of Mercedes Benz Club that the latest Mercedes Hybrid only does 14 miles on the battery.
Extraordinary – why on earth would any sane person want to buy one of these turkeys?
Noting some 30% of the country’s total energy useage powers transport through the medium of diesel and petrol, where will the extra electricity come from when we all move to electrically powered transport? And bearing in mind it takes just a couple of minutes to fill up with petrol or diesel, it seems to me massive sized completely impractical filling stations would be needed to cater for the hour or more it will take to fill up with electricity instead!
Don’t confuse them with the facts 😉
Well, the trains could have solar panels on all the freight cars and they could drive the train.
THEN add wind turbines that will provide power as the train is moving.
Mind you, half the train would be for batteries. But Hey.. so what?
Now , can I get a job in the the government’s green energy field??
The solution is SO simple.
;^D
Full hybrids can make commercial sense, as Prius shows. EVs are DOA until there is an energy storage breakthrough. There is precisely one present possibility, Fiskers Nanotech LIC. Wrote a guest post on this for Climate Etc for those interested in the technical details.
I wonder how the electric cars handle this, dont expect to have the heating on for long in your electric car-
“5 Jan 2017 – In the east and south German highlands temperatures have already plummeted to – 10 C. But it will get a lot worse.In the night from Friday to Saturday some parts of Germany temperatures are expected to drop to minus 25 C (-13F). “
I would argue that the government is in full control and this is going exactly to plan. The plan is Agenda 21/2030. This states that private transport is unsustainable. You won’t need charging points. You will live in a city and take the train.