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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

The VW EVs aren't bad, apart from poor UX design, which they have realized.

Broadly speaking they're not _as far away_ from Chinese EVs as we all make it here to be. However, the problem is that the stockholders of all these companies expect 500% YoY growth which isn't sustainable. Not to mention the cost of a car has grown significantly while all German cars have degraded substantially in quality. For example, you can expect Porsche to sell FOREVER the number of cars they manage to sell in the 00s and 10s:

    2000: ~54,600 (happy)
    2007: ~98,600 (happy)
    2019: ~280,800
    2025: 280,000 (CRISIS!!!)

I mean... It's a freaking sports car! Why on earth would you expect to sell more units than these?

Broadly speaking internet commentary about cars is crap and the differences between any two competing products (i.e. ignore the dishonest comparisons between a Chevy Cobalt and a Toyota Landcruiser) are way, way smaller than the online fanboys, shills and people with a very expensive purchasing decision they want to feel validated in will lead you to believe.

They are on par or better than their Chinese counterparts but they are a hard sell being 30-50% more expensive.

The same new VW ID.3 in China costs less than $20K, while in EU more than $40K.

Not the BYD or noname EV, the same model.

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