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posted by martyb on Friday November 09 2018, @05:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the elektrowagen dept.

Reuters:

Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) intends to sell electric cars for less than 20,000 euros ($22,836) and protect German jobs by converting three factories to make Tesla (TSLA.O) rivals, a source familiar with the plans said.

VW and other carmakers are struggling to adapt quickly enough to stringent rules introduced after the carmaker was found to have cheated diesel emissions tests, with its chief executive Herbert Diess warning last month that Germany's auto industry faces extinction.

Plans for VW's electric car, known as "MEB entry" and with a production volume of 200,000 vehicles, are due to be discussed at a supervisory board meeting on Nov. 16, the source said.

Fallout from cheating on diesel emissions tests continues. If German automakers, of which VW is the largest, switch to electric vehicles (EVs), will other car companies have to follow suit?


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  • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday November 09 2018, @08:09PM (1 child)

    by fyngyrz (6567) on Friday November 09 2018, @08:09PM (#760055) Journal

    Until portable fission is invented, electrical car is way more attached to infrastructure.

    I assume you're referring to range; certainly an ICE is well attached to the need for a great deal of petro-infrastructure. EV range is steadily, if slowly, increasing as onboard energy storage improves, and an EV with good range tends to have short-range capabilities that an ICE with good range will not - acceleration, torque curve, independence from a fixed power source type (even if it's powered by a coal plant when you buy it, it can end up being powered by solar, nuclear, all manner of less- and/or non-polluting sources eventually.)

    Where I live, I absolutely have to have good range, about ~300 miles or ~485 km with the heater or A/C on the whole way, and an EV isn't close to giving it to me as yet. But the finish line is slowly approaching. When it gets here, that's the end of our buying ICE-based vehicles. My guess is that Tesla will get there first with an acceptable combination of vehicle quality and range. But I'm ready to buy if someone else gets there first. Power here is hydro in general, and solar at my home, so I feel very good about going this way.

    Lastly, ICE fueling costs are extremely, and consistently, high. With solar here at my home, that will drop to basically nothing, as most of our runs are both infrequent and short-range. So we could easily keep an EV charged for $0 until we need to get out of town (and then we're back to needing ~300 miles range, which we could prep for here but once there, we'd need a huge charge from somewhere, which I expect would not be cost-free.)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 10 2018, @02:57AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 10 2018, @02:57AM (#760211)

    I expect an electric pickup traveling steadily down a highway is going to use about 30 kw.
    5 hours to go 300 miles = about 150 kwHrs.
    Price per kwHr is about 10 cents, So $15 to refill. Cheaper than gas.