While Volkswagen Group plans to go all electric by 2033 in the EU, some German drivers and BMW would like to keep their tailpipe polluters. After agreeing to the EU regulation to ban internal combustion light vehicles by 2035, the FDP, the smallest member of the German governing coalition, is … [continued]
Safety is rightfully defined as the number one priority for all regulators who make decisions about vehicle systems like driving assist or autonomous driving on European roads and it’s fair to assume all people involved try their best to accomplish it.
After my article “There Will Be Blood” was published here on CleanTechnica, Peter Mertens, the former Head of R&D at Audi and former Board Member of Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Jaguar Land Rover, and now Board Member of Faurecia, Recogni and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Valens, reached out to me and asked if I am interested in an interview with him.
The CEOs of Mercedes-Benz and Nvidia announced today at a press event that they were launching a partnership for a, quoting Ola Källenius, “groundbreaking, software-defined, high-performance computer architecture for driving assistance and autonomous drive.”
Escalation is the word that describes best what happened in recent weeks within Volkswagen, and it’s an escalation that is not helpful for CEO Herbert Diess, the Volkswagen Group, our society, Germany, or the environment.
I write this article full of anger as a German about the German auto industry. The Octopus is one of the most fascinating and intelligent animals in our seas. Scientists predict that if they didn’t die that early after the new generation is born, because of their ability to learn, they would be “the humans of the sea,” dominating all other sea animals large and small, just like humans do on soil.
It is true that an electric motor alone does not allow a huge differentiation like we experience it with the combustion engine but the real BEV drive train is the combination of the battery with the electric motor, braking system, Software, Inverter and not the electric motor alone.
Every nation of this world will do its best to protect its industry for the good of the country’s economy and its people. Politicians are elected to make sure industries and jobs are doing well, to stabilize income, and to reduce risk. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this protection. Unfortunately, politics can, by trying its very best to support its industry, destroy it without even realizing what’s happening. This has happened before, and there is a large risk that it’s happening today in the largest automotive producing countries, like Germany, Japan, and the USA.
A study in Germany predicts electric cars could lead to the loss of up to 410,000 jobs in its auto industry. But there’s more to the story.
Tesla’s plan to build Gigafactory 4 (GF4) in Germany makes sense if you look at it from the perspective of Tesla’s mission. Business Insider recently published an opinion piece on this topic, claiming the factory location didn’t make sense, and I am aiming to provide a different point of view of things.
