The Electric Car and Political Chatter

The number of electric cars in Germany now registered in the system (with tags)?  A grand total of 195,000 (July 2019 numbers by the government).

Comparing that against the diesel and gas cars?  If you use spring of 2018 numbers (again by the government), it's near 46-million in Germany.

So if you were going to go and do an assessment of when the electric car 'thing' would arrive at the 25-percent point?  Oh boy....even with the current trend in place....I doubt if you'd hit 25-percent for at least twenty years. 

Oh, I agree....the German law mandating no new gas/diesel car sales by 2030 is sitting there.  Car companies have spent billions to get something in place now and have models ready to sell. 

I'm one of limited few who've driven the new Audi E-Tron.  My impression was positive, but once you came to the sticker price, the charging time, and the limited mileage for one single charge.....I just laughed at the idea and said no.  Maybe in ten years....I'll change my mind.

So gas and diesel cars are going to be around for a fairly long time?  Yes.  Unless the government goes out and does something major.....there's nothing going on to drag people in and convince them of a urgent need to flip.  The Greta-kids on a hyped-up save-the-world mission?  That doesn't change the perception of the public to go out and spend 70k Euro on a E-Tron.  Even if you went to a cheaper VW battery car for 40k Euro.....it's just not a purchase plan with 'charm'.  Germans don't feel that much 'charm' over the e-cars.

Last night, HR (our regional public TV network) went and did a 7-minute piece on the hydrogen cars.  In the past, this was just a science fantasy.  In the past year, reporting now indicates that 17 hydrogen stations now exist in Germany, and there's a good bit of research going into the engine, and station business.  After watching that, I would be optimistic that a thousand German hydrogen stations will be active in the next three years.  I might even go and suggest that this technology, instead of the battery business....would make more sense in the long-run.  But you'd have to give the technology another ten years for development. 

The money already wasted by VW, Audi, Mercedes and BMW on electric cars?  Well....yeah, that's now a problem.  They all need consumers to come in and start paying back the technology money....now.  They really don't want the hydrogen discussion to take off because there's tons of money already spent. 

So has the political parties put themselves at some risk?  In simple terms....yes.  And if they appear to be failing?  Well....the votes will go to the Green Party.  So an entire election.....say in 2021....might well be developed and won by the Greens on the topic of cars?  As much as you might laugh about that, yes....it's possible that they've really gone to a topic with no rational outcome to make folks happy.