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Comment by colordrops | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of Nokia's demise. Before they were sold to Microsoft, everyone was saying how they'd all buy Nokias if they would just adopt Android. We all know how that went.

It's clear to everyone at the moment that a moderately priced electric beetle would sell like hotcakes. But just like Nokia made the wrong call, it looks like VW will do the same.

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> It's clear to everyone at the moment that a moderately priced electric beetle would sell like hotcakes.

I don’t know anyone among my friends or relatives who wants/likes beetle. So I don’t think it’s so “clear” as you are saying. They probably have data to backup beetle cancellation

There is definitely a large subset of the population that would rather drive an electric beetle over other similarly priced vehicles, such as this:

https://s.aolcdn.com/commerce/autodata/images/USC70NIC161C02...

or this:

http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/chevrolet/na/us/english...

or this:

https://www.futureford.com/assets/stock/colormatched/white/6...

Bmw looks better, those shevy and Nissan cars are for different demographic who don’t really care about styling but more about getting the cheapest thing. Beetle is not of these

The target demographic for the modern VW Beetle seems to be aging boomers and 30-something hipsters who want something small and economical but appealing to their sense of nostalgia. The emphasis for VW is on the nostalgia factor. The content on their US website attests to this: "The original original", "Shift into overjoy", and a product tie in with Fender guitars. The newer Beetles are basically baseline Golfs with a Beetle shape. Nothing exactly special about them compared to classic Bugs. All of the modern Beetles are front-engine, front-wheel-drive, with the latest having the requisite turbocharged 2.0 liter engine, like every other staid econobox these days.

The immediately previous (retro, but not original) beetle design was extremely popular with women. So much so that the current beetle was redesigned to be more appealing to men. I haven’t seen many on the road, so no idea who they are popular with now in practice.

yeah, i remember (early 2ks?) practically every woman had one it felt

What about a buffier twingo ?

Actually I‘d probably buy this new VW Minibus, while I could care less about a beetle. The Minibus is always as history laden as the beetle, and it’s so much more versatile. In a world of autonomous cars, small cars will become ubiquitous and interchangeable since we don’t need to own them anymore to get to work, while big vehicles like the Minibus are more likely to be owned since they are needed for vacations, band tours, camping, IKEA shopping,...

EDIT: Changed Mini to Minibus.

The VW Mini? I own a Mini and they’re made by BMW, not by VW. Or are we talking about two different things (unlikely that BMW would let its brand be diluted by such a similar marque).

The Mini is pretty much all that is left of BMW’s acquisition of Rover [0] in 1994 - there is no chance VW is making a Mini.

I love the irony that the GP touts the Mini as being more likely to be owned as a “big vehicle”, yet in it’s original shape and size it would be perfect as a small electric vehicle!

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_Group

Sorry I meant the Minibus. Edited for clarity.

None of this makes sense to me.

VW is not going the way of Nokia.

And no, it is not clear to me that a moderately priced electric beetle would sell like hotcakes. It isn't even a particularly slippery shape, the original beetle had so much lift the front end would unload the suspension at speed.

Good riddance.

Nokia not doing android was a political decission by M$ to push Windows phone. It was not an economical decission.

And Android was not a ticket to success. Approximately one company outside of China actually made money with Android.

Funnily enough, Nokia is #3 in sales among Android vendors. They literally outsell everyone (Google included) except LG, Samsung and Apple, quite impressive: https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/17007498/nokia-hmd-phones...

Turns out there is a market for a well built phone that gets security and Android updates in a rapid manner!

The actual sales numbers put them way in the back of the pack. And are they actually making any money? Because LG moves 5 times more units and cannot make any kind of profit.

4.4 million phones is a good clip, esp. with how few devices Nokia has. LG has hundreds of models on sale (which is part of what bleeds their profits) while Nokia has a bit over a dozen. Much lower R&D cost, plus a smaller maintenance burden.

I have a Nokia X (wife was working at Nokia before the buy out). It wasn’t a nice phone, the software was just a kludge compared to real WP devices. I’m not sure how Nokia could have achieved their goals being just another Android brand. It works now because they are starting from zero, but back then that wasn’t the case.

WP was the better bet for Nokia, but they didn’t have any good choices at that point.

> It's clear to everyone at the moment that a moderately priced electric beetle would sell like hotcakes.

Would it, really?

The problem is that market forces are working against cheaper, smaller cars.

Does a company really want to run the gauntlet for producing a big production run and then having it flop? Especially if those sales might cannibalize purchases of their far more profitable cars?

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