I bet those Etrons (étron) don't sell well in France.
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Volkswagen CEO: We're 'Not Afraid' of a Potential 'Apple Car'
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I bet those Etrons (étron) don't sell well in France.
I believe it would be foolish to underestimate the design capabilities of Apple. With that said; building cars is a whole other level. There is no room for "beta" software releases for things like cars. Case in point -- Boeing 737 Max; no offense but as someone who has worked on a military air base and directly involved with Air Traffic Control systems, what a god damn mess. People should be in jail over that.
Imagine thinking Tesla is very successful when they manage to sell half a million cars per year, when VWAG is selling 10 million cars per year, and already outselling Tesla in the European electric car market, and that's without being fed free money.
There really is a, quite frankly, frightening, cult going on with Tesla. Let's be honest. It seems to be a common phenomena in the US these days. Cults all over the place.
What else should he say? Yes, we are afraid of Apple. The Apple Car will be too good and we will close our factories.
Nah the dealer will probably have to pay some license fee to Apple or something to set up special service areas for Apple cars that look nothing like the rest of the dealer that service them. Think of the mini Apple stores at a Best Buy but at a car dealer.
That depends on how you define the luxury watch market.
The traditional swiss watch makers, the Rolex of this world, haven’t suffered because of Apple.
watch makers selling you €200-500 watches absolutely. Is this the luxury segment? No.
comparisons between iphone vs nokia and apple vs car industry are pretty stupid and not the same whatsoever.
Making a car is a very different beast.
it is also not a market where VW has to lose for Apple to be successful.
now, if the entire automobile industry turns into a service, that’s a different story but we are unfortunately years/decades away from that.
Yeah and VW cars compare to Tesla like cheap Android phones compare to the iPhone. Cheap sells in high volume. A $20K car will instantly sell without thought a lot easier than a $100K car. To be honest VW isn't the goto car anyway. People are buying Honda, Acura, Toyota and Lexus. And before you rebuttal what I said I work right in the automotive industry.
Cheap? How are the etron or Taycan cheap when compared to the model S, or the id3 cheap compared to the Model 3. If anything, Tesla will capture the price sensitive market. Tesla doesn't represent premium quality nor luxury positioning. Its USP is related to its software/AI/IT, and that's good, but don't get confused. It used to have a monopoly due to lack of competition, not anymore.
Uh we're talking about VW. Why you brought up Porsche and Audi is baffling. 🤷♂️
You seem to have an axe to grind with Tesla. That's your own personal problem I can't help you with.
Exactly, there is no reason to be afraid but there are plenty of reasons to take them seriously and be aware of what they’re doing.
I have a suspicion that Apple isn’t necessarily aiming at selling directly to consumers right out of the gate though I’m sure some who would buy it outright. Instead I suspect they are developing autonomous “last mile” type of vehicles, sold mostly in fleets, designed to be used to replace services like Uber and Lyft with fleets of vehicles that don’t need a driver.
Owning a car is expensive, you’ve got the cost of the vehicle, the cost of gas, the cost of maintence and repairs, insurance, registration fees, etc. Uber and Lyft are available in my area but are not reliably available enough that I can count on getting the timely 10 minute ride from my house to the office and back.
If there were a fleet of reliably available autonomous vehicles in our town my wife and I would keep a vehicle for the freedom to travel on medium and long distance trips and as a backup just in case we needed to go somewhere right away but we’d certainly be able to reduce our TCO on the vehicle and rely on the fleet for our day to day commute and rides to and from places in town.
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VW is an auto group, that's why it's called VWAG, it goes from Seat to Bugatti, and that's how they develop their product catalog.
I don't have a problem with Tesla, how would that work? I'm just stating facts. If you have a problem with those, I can't help you.
Probably because Audi and Porsche are brands of VW.
Well, of course when somebody reads something like this, the first thing that comes to mind is Nokia. But that doesn't mean that Apple figures everything out. I don't know if Mark Zuckerberg said something like he is not afraid of Ping. Anyway. Ping was a desaster. I also don't know of Eric Schmidt said something like he's not afraid of Apple Maps. But either way Apple Maps didn't really outshine Google Maps. Still doesn't. Don't know if Google is afraid of Siri by the way.
So, of course it may be that Apple revolutionizes the car industrie. But it does not need to be. And the car market is under a fierce competition for countless years, it won't be a cakewalk for Apple.
So, of course it may be that Apple revolutionizes the car industrie. But it does not need to be. And the car market is under a fierce competition for countless years, it won't be a cakewalk for Apple.
VW has invested well in BEV technology and they have a good set of brands to deliver it to multiple markets. They are the European car manufacturer in best shape to challenge Tesla. I'm looking forward to the ID.4 arriving this year to there USA.
Why do blind fanboys always do this? I love my iPhone and MBP but its one thing creating a competing PC or phone, and a whole other thing creating a new car. Apple knows computers and phones not mechanics and automotive aerodynamics
I think it unlikely that Apple will build a car, but I think they’re involved in some clever tech that existing manufacturers can use.
It makes no sense. Why would they go into an industry which relies HEAVILY on third party manufacturers in the supply chain when Apple’s trying to do the opposite in every other area in order to control the product & quality?
All these meetings are about tech integration (CarKey, CarPlay... and who knows what else).
It makes no sense. Why would they go into an industry which relies HEAVILY on third party manufacturers in the supply chain when Apple’s trying to do the opposite in every other area in order to control the product & quality?
All these meetings are about tech integration (CarKey, CarPlay... and who knows what else).
Apple relies almost exclusively on third parties to build iPhones. Apple mostly do the R&D and design and have Asian companies build it. US company Corning supplies glass and Apple supplies the chips. Apple are making a car. Steve wanted to design an Apple car 15 years ago, now the stars are aligning. Open your mind, they literally employ perhaps 2,000 car engineers at this stage. Many Tesla employees and several electric car and car battery company employees now work for Apple. Wrap your head around it.
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The Macrumors list of companies that are over
Volkswagen
Netflix
Spotify
Epic Games
The entire watch industry
Intel
Have i missed anyone..?
Indeed. The VW Group also owns Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley, as well as "cheaper" brands like Skoda and SEAT.
To complicate the story further, the majority voting group for VW is Porsche SE (which is controlled by the Porsche and Piech families).
Anyhow, VW knows how to build cars and has a boatload of technology at its disposition. The VW brand is fairly high-end in Europe, the next up would be Audi.
My recollection is that the main platform is shared (MEB) and the larger Porsche/Audi will use an evolution platform, PPE - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group_MEB_platform
That is not the question. The question is: Can Apple be successful in the car business if they decide to enter it?
There are many businesses they have decided that they no longer want to serve because they cannot be profitable enough (printers, WiFi access points, etc.) or they decided not enter (Television sets, DVRs, DSLRs, etc.).
