GUEST: Hein Schafer, Senior Vice President, Product Marketing and Strategy, Volkswagen of America
TOPICS:
- VW ID.4
- Is the auto supply chain too fragile—and what can be done about it?
- Will lux EVs move the needle on mass market acceptance?
- What will have a bigger impact on dealers: COVID or EVs?
PANEL:
Sebastian Blanco, Freelance; Gary Vasilash, on Automotive; John McElroy, Autoline.tv
GUEST: Hein Schafer, Senior Vice President, Product Marketing and Strategy, Volkswagen of America
TOPICS:
- VW ID.4
- Is the auto supply chain too fragile—and what can be done about it?
- Will lux EVs move the needle on mass market acceptance?
- What will have a bigger impact on dealers: COVID or EVs?
PANEL:
Sebastian Blanco, Freelance; Gary Vasilash, on Automotive; John McElroy, Autoline.tv
read more
read less
I was going on to comment on the VW representarive, assuming he was on-message from a corporate message point-of-view, was very disaapointing to hear him anti-sell the ID.4 from almost every angle. But I guess with less than 100K vehicles, they have to. Disaapointing for your NA viewers/listeners that they wont have the oppurtunity to move to VW EV any time soon. Makes an interesting future for the big three; might be easier to pay lip service for now and carry on selling ICE, but the Korians, Chinese and possibly Japanese can and will provide compelling EVs and all price points (I currently drive a SAIC MG ZS EV SUV where the top-spec is £25K in UK (tax included) and we know they are profitable.
You claim to be enthusats for the global automotive industry so its facinating to listen from outside North America to get your Detoit biased view of the industry (UK in my case). I'm an EV driver entering my 6th year of 100% electric motoring, but I didnt buy mine for environmental reasons and dont expect anyone else to either; for most of the world, EVs are better by any rational metric for the owner/driver, not least cost of operation as fuel tax is higher that NA in most countries. So the ability to save £25k (~$35k) over the next years by opting into EV now rather than wait till we are forced to dump ICE, for a vehicle that is more fun, quieter, smoother is an easy decision to make. I accept in NA fuel prices are dramatically less, so no such pocket book advantage exists, but still a better vehicle for same money will still win out in the end.
