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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?
(Score: 2) by mobydisk on Saturday November 10 2018, @04:27PM
Old-school car mechanics often claim this, but the statistics show the opposite: the electronics are the most reliable part of a car by an order of magnitude. The only justification for this statement is that the electronics often fail without pre-failure warning indications. But that is because the MTBF and MTTR are so low that it isn't worth putting in early detection systems for electronic parts and it isn't worth doing preventative maintenance like replacing wires or chips. By the time a car's electrical systems fail, it has gone through many sets of tires, a new clutch or transmission, 50 oil changes, air filters, fluid replacements, brakes, spark plugs, headlights, a water pump, some belts, several new batteries, a few replacement seals, etc.
This statement about reliability also applies to industrial machinery, computers, aircraft. Parts that move are the first to fail. I work with industrial medical devices, and the only "electronic" parts that factor into the reliability estimates are CPU fans and hard drives. And we prefer designs that don't require them.