Amid Apple Car Rumors, Volkswagen CEO Welcomes Competitors to Accelerate Transformation of the Auto Industry

[cmaier]

No, your math is off. Apple as car manufacturer + established car manufacturer remaining independent = 2, net positive 1 manufacturer (Apple). If Apple purchased an established company, that’s a net 0. It also means letting a company that is already under scrutiny for being too big and anti-competitive grow even larger and enter a new industry through a purchase, not going to happen in today’s political climate.*

*Im not debating the merits of such scrutiny, just stating what the political climate is. If anyone wants to debate whether Apple is anti-competitive, too big, or whatever, do it with someone else.

But apple is not a car manufacturer now. So buying one would mean the market would have the same number of competitors that it had yesterday.

 

[Klyster]

It's a Chinese-only EV. And Toyota couldn't even sell 2000 of them as of October 2020 (sales began in April), in the most EV-friendly market in the world. It's an ICE platform with a shoehorned EV drivetrain, and not a meaningful EV in any sense of the word.

Toyota's stated goal is for 1 million battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell car sales by 2030. Tesla will be selling ~15M+ EVs/year by then. With the way governments are banning ICE new cars, Toyota is in serious trouble.

lol, we'll see.

Toyota Is Finally Joining the Electric Vehicle Market with a European EV

An electric crossover is being primed for Europe first, with a U.S. model coming soon.

www.google.com

Lexus UX 300e | All Electric | Lexus Europe

Created to evoke the fun of driving in the city, the all-electric UX 300e combines world-class refinement with an exciting new Lexus Electrified experience.

www.lexus.eu

 

[erthquake]

lol, we'll see.

Toyota Is Finally Joining the Electric Vehicle Market with a European EV

An electric crossover is being primed for Europe first, with a U.S. model coming soon.

www.google.com

Lexus UX 300e | All Electric | Lexus Europe

Created to evoke the fun of driving in the city, the all-electric UX 300e combines world-class refinement with an exciting new Lexus Electrified experience.

www.lexus.eu

Again, a DOA attempt at an EV. It’s a joke. Only 160 miles of real-world range on the highway. 0-60mph is a laughable 7.2 seconds. Even worse is that it uses an air cooled battery like the first gen Leaf that had severe irreversible range loss in hot weather. They’ll be lucky to sell more than a handful in the EU given the VW ID.4, Tesla Model 3/Y and Ford Mach-e.

 

[Klyster]

Again, a DOA attempt at an EV. It’s a joke. Only 160 miles of real-world range on the highway. 0-60mph is a laughable 7.2 seconds. Even worse is that it uses an air cooled battery like the first gen Leaf that had severe irreversible range loss in hot weather. They’ll be lucky to sell more than a handful in the EU given the VW ID.4, Tesla Model 3/Y and Ford Mach-e.

The point is they are already in the game, selling a large share of the hybrids, selling electric cars, which you said they didn't, the Lexus/Toyota battery has a 1000000 km warranty, so people won't be too worried about the battery dying and Lexus is the most reliable auto brand,

When they bring on their new battery tech, they'll be away laughing.

sure, write them off, but I can see how this will pan out.

 

[ActionableMango]

I highly doubt the U.S. or E.U. will allow the likes of Apple or Google to purchase an established car manufacturer, they’re already being scrutinized for being too big. The age of large mergers and acquisitions in tech is over.

I doubt Apple would want to buy an established manufacturer anyway. In all other cases they seem to prefer to outsource manufacturing. Even the "Apple" plant making Mac Pros in the USA was actually outsourced to another company.

I suspect Apple would much rather design a car in partnership with an established contract automotive manufacturer like Valmet Automotive or Magna Steyr, then outsource manufacturing to them. Magna in particular already makes an EV (Jaguar iPace), has their own EV platform (e4), and recently signed up to make the Fisker Ocean. To me this move seems way more Apple-like than outright buying a legacy automaker.

 

[ActionableMango]

As for the environment, there are tons of scenarios where electric cars are actually worse. Their lack of emissions is lovely but since making them produces much more harm to the environment than the equivalent gasoline car they only make sense in scenarios where they get lots of miles. But let's say your bought a shiny new Tesla junkmobile and crashed it the following day into total - bammm! You just polluted a lot more than if you bought some Mercedes. But EV fanbois never want to admit that or listen to it.

The average lifespan of a car is 12 years, not 1 day. When exactly an EV will be better for the environment is debatable and depends on a lot of factors, but the typical answer in recent studies is around 3 years.

But I'll keep your advice in mind. Next time I plan on buying a new car to crash the next day, I'll get a Mercedes.

 

[Synchromesh]

The average lifespan of a car is 12 years, not 1 day. When exactly an EV will be better for the environment is debatable and depends on a lot of factors, but the typical answer in recent studies is around 3 years.

But I'll keep your advice in mind. Next time I plan on buying a new car to crash the next day, I'll get a Mercedes.

That depends on a car. Cars with larger batteries and in states which depend on coal to generate their electricity it could take a lot longer.

Obviously when you buy a car you don't intend to crash it, generally speaking, but stuff happens, right? And if it does, you just polluted more. This also works with collector cars that see very little mileage. If you buy an electric car it could take decades to offset all the environmental damage compared to the gasoline version simply because it doesn't acquire enough miles.

Also, next time I plant on buying a new car to crash the next day, I'll definitely buy a Tesla. I cannot stand them so to see one get crashed would be most satisfying. Hopefully I won't be in it at the time. I'll be happy to send pictures of a dead Tesla with me jumping up and down on its lifeless body to Musk.