More on Continental

 On the Sunday AM news via ARD (public-TV, Channel One)....there was another political attempt to smear the German car-parts company Continental....who has said that operations are going to downsize. 

Over the past month, I've brought this Continental story up two or three times.  In the big picture....13k jobs with the company around Europe are at risk.  

While I agree...some of this is simply lessening sales (for car parts) during Covid-19....a fair amount of this discussion centers on what the German political system demanded....E-cars are basically the only 'new' car you can buy by 2030, with gas/diesel new car sales completely gone.

The car companies like Ford, Opel, VW, Mercedes, BMW....they know the trend, and have planned for it.  Basically, you make E-cars with 50-percent less parts than a gas/diesel car requires.

The idiot politicians themselves created this wave.

In this morning's piece....North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister/Premier President....Armin Laschet...made some big plea that this is not correct in what Continental is doing.  The government 'gave' them all this funding....they need to keep the jobs going.

So you just stand there laughing.....the general public is looking at the front-page chatter of this guy, and asking the question......isn't this downsizing exactly what you triggered by the E-car agenda?

You could have gone back four years ago when all this chatter started up at the Bundestag and sat in the Chancellor Merkel meetings.  None of them had a grasp of the E-car parts situation and that a whole massive industry existed for decades in Germany, and you won't require half of these people when the smoke clears in 2030.

It's the same way in the coal industry.  When you finally stop the coal production business....all of these people in the region affected will not have a job.  The government plan?  Pouring billions into this, and having a retraining plan, but really having no idea where this job will appear from.

I feel sorry for the car parts people....who'd came out out of school....got great training, and produced some of the finest car parts in the world.  They made wipers that went way past your expectations.  They produced car batteries that lasted way past your normal expectations (my Audi TT battery is now fourteen years old and appears to be capable for at least two more).  They had superior products, and customers knew it.

I expect more chatter like this from the politicians, but there's nothing much to be said or done....unless you want to revisit the mandate on killing the gas/diesel car industry.