Tag Archives: Automobiles

Car science isn’t rocket science, people

September 23, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Nobody wants Volkswagen’s electric cars.

The fewest German drivers do, anyway.

Driving on empty: The German government has few options to help an ailing car industry – Economy Minister Robert Habeck will meet with carmakers — but he has few weapons to stave off a car industry crisis.

Threats of historic job cuts and plant closures at German car giant Volkswagen and plunging earnings elsewhere in the industry are prompting Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck to hold crisis talks on Monday.

But strained federal finances, fights with China over car tariffs and looming EU environmental regulations leave Habeck with few tools to help an industry which is the country’s economic backbone.

A self-inflicted hostage-taking situation?

June 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why is it that big German automakers are worried about Chinese retaliation?

Because they voluntarily put themselves in the position to be retaliated against. Think Germany’s voluntary dependency on Russian gas recently. That didn’t work out very well either. But for whatever reason, this is what Germans do.

Germany launches 11th-hour bid to avert trade war with China – Germany wants the EU to set tariffs on electric vehicles at a low level to avoid severe retaliation from Beijing…

Germany’s position was “problematic,” he said: While big German automakers still entertain good ties with Beijing, that’s not necessarily the case for smaller businesses, meaning “the German economy as a whole has an interest in a more assertive policy towards China.”

It HAS stopped making cars…

August 1, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Real cars. And with that, the fun for Germany has only just begun.

What if Germany stopped making cars? Imagine Volkswagen goes the way of Nokia.

“The future of the vw brand is at stake.” When Thomas Schäfer, the mass-market marque’s newish boss, gave a presentation to his management team in early July, he did not sugarcoat its problems. High costs, falling demand, growing competition—the list goes on. “The roof is on fire,” he warned, echoing one of the most noted alarm calls in recent business history—from Stephen Elop, who in 2011 compared his company to a “burning platform” shortly after taking the helm at Nokia, then the world’s largest maker of mobile phones…

Export This

January 15, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Germany still exports cars like hotcakes.

But China exports more.

China’s car exports surpass Germany’s after 54.4 per cent surge to 3.11 million in 2022, narrowing Japan’s lead – China has surpassed Germany to become the world’s second-largest car exporter after mainland exports jumped 54.4 per cent year on year to 3.11 million vehicles in 2022, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM).

Save The Trees – And The German Automobile Industry!

September 3, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Too late for the later, I think.

Trees

Germany Promises Elon Musk Whatever He Needs For Tesla Berlin Plant – The factory, under construction, would be Tesla’s first European car plant, and could employ an estimated 12,000 people, making as many as 500,000 cars a year. The factory is slated to start production in summer 2021, an aggressive timetable for a car plant…

Locals have complained that trees were cut down for the factory and that it’s being built in a region with scarce water resources, but construction has progressed relatively smoothly so far.

“We are very proud of your car plant in Brandenburg and we wish you good luck with that. You’ll have every assistance you need.”

The Decline and Fall of the German Empire

July 9, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The German Automobile Empire.

Cars

Could 400,000 car industry jobs in Germany be lost? – The car industry is in apparent decline in Germany. Some estimates predict that half its 800,000 jobs will be gone by 2030. The industry disagrees with that estimate, but the road ahead looks bumpy.

“The production of electric vehicles can be automated more easily. If there is no improvement in the competitive position of the German industry in the area of electromobility in the next few years, and if the need for imports of battery cells and electric vehicles continues to grow in light of the launch of electromobility, employment structures will be severely hit.”

What A Shocker

February 14, 2020 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, History, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Not. Again. Yawn.

Speed

The latest proposal to introduce a general speed limit on German autobahns has not received the needed support from lawmakers.

I’ve never understood this. From time to time the Greens & Co. suggest that Germans reduce their speed on the autobahn. It’s a fine idea, I guess. In theory. But that would be like asking Americans to turn in their guns. It ain’t never going to happen.

Der Vorschlag des Umweltausschusses, die geplante Änderung der Straßenverkehrsordnung um eine Höchstgeschwindigkeit von 130 Kilometern pro Stunde zu ergänzen, fand am Freitag in Berlin wie erwartet keine Mehrheit in der Länderkammer.

German Of The Day: Tiefstand

January 8, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means lowest level. You know, like the current 23-year low in German car production?

Tiefstand

German car production fell to its lowest in almost a quarter of a century as Europe’s biggest economy suffers from the fallout of a global trade war.

Automakers including Volkswagen AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG produced 4.66 million vehicles in German factories last year, the weakest since 1996. The country’s VDA car lobby, which published the figures on Monday, said the 9% decrease was a result of waning demand from international markets.

The industry is set for more tough times this year. The VDA predicted global car deliveries will drop to 78.9 million vehicles from 80.1 million in 2019.

Jesus Just Left Chicago

December 16, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hype, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Madrid, actually. But once she got to Germany nobody offered her a place to sit.

Greta

Nobody needed to. She also had a first class ticket. But that’s beside the point or something. I just don’t get it. Doesn’t Greta HERSELF have her own special train or, you know, mobile field headquarters or something along those lines?

Climate activist Greta Thunberg and Germany’s national railway company created a tweetstorm Sunday after she posted a photo of herself sitting on the floor of a train surrounded by lots of bags.

The image has drawn plenty of comment online about the performance of German railways.

Wir wünschen #Greta eine gute Heimfahrt. Und arbeiten weiter hart an mehr Zügen, Verbindungen und Sitzplätzen.

Speaking Of The German Automobile Industry

November 15, 2019 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And German industry in general. They couldn’t laugh off Tesla. Now the punches are coming in hot and heavy.

DaimlerAuto

German Industrial Job Losses Top 80,000 With Daimler Cuts – Germany’s economy may have narrowly avoided a recession, but the pressure on the country’s industry shows no sign of abating.

Daimler AG said this week it will shed 10% of management positions at its Mercedes unit, lifting the tally of job cuts announced this year across Germany’s manufacturing sector to more than 80,000, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Companies from Volkswagen AG to Siemens AG are letting workers go as Germany’s powerful automotive industry struggles with a shift toward electrification and self-driving cars, and makers of machinery and robots are hit by slower exports and trade disputes. Makers of well-known German products such as Meissen porcelain and WMF kitchenware are also trimming their workforce.