Tesla is Slowly Pushing Germany Into Recession

I was in the BMW museum in Munich last month. They have all of their engines proudly on display,including the big old Focke Wulf 190 engine in the pic.
Most of these big car manufacturers started as engine makers,and that is really their area of expertise.
Good engines are hard to design, but when cars go all electric, any old fool will be able to put some batteries in a chassis and buy a good electric motor.
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They haven't made anything decent in 20Y. 5Y residual values of 20% if you're lucky. A 750 with four ECUs and you need a tear the engine down to replace a plug?
 
1944 on that motor huh? That's pretty cool. Its amazing what human-kind accomplished in less than 40 years across all aspects of engineering. Just the metallurgy and machining alone on that engine is incredible, let alone the brains it took to design the damn thing.

I sometimes wonder if we'd be as technologically advanced as we are, without all our wars or the fear thereof. Interesting conundrum.

I think there's no question war/military applications have been responsible for a great deal of technological advance.
 
I stopped reading right after this sentence...and I'm still in tears of laughter. The countries CEO? Really? Perhaps this guy read one too many tweets of CEO Dolan Trampf? XD Good lord.
...
Always fact check pls.
You might try it yourself.

Tesla delivered 367,500 vehicles in 2019. 50% more than 2018 and 300% more than 2017.

https://cleantechnica.com/2020/01/03/tesla-sales-grew-47x-in-7-years/

Here in South Florida it is their biggest market and they are "a dime a dozen" crawling all over our streets and highways. Soon to be in Deutschland as well. Why the fuck do you think they are building a Gigafactory over there? To produce bathroom nightlights?
 
https://www.ccn.com/tesla-is-slowly-pushing-germany-into-recession/


  • Germany is on the brink of recession after growth slowed to zero in the last quarter.
  • The economy is being dragged down by a seismic slump in car manufacturing.
  • The Tesla effect – and the shift to electric vehicles – is leaving Germany in dire straits.
Germany’s economy is on the verge of recession as its once-illustrious car making industry falters. It’s no stretch to say that Tesla has disrupted the very backbone of Europe’s largest economy.

A German engineer put it best when he called Tesla an ‘existential threat’ to the entire German automotive industry and urged the country’s CEOs to ‘do better’:

Your ambitions for electric vehicles are falling short of consumer expectations. Those expectations have been set from your strongest competitor today and in the future, Tesla.

Tesla-Model-3-sales.png

The Tesla Model 3 is outselling every major German rival in US sales and in Europe. Source: CleanTechnica
Germany on the brink of recession
The latest economic figures out of Germany aren’t pretty: zero growth for the fourth quarter. The country is now teetering on recession.

Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics stated:

We think the economy will continue to flirt with recession in the first half of this year.

Chief among the problems is a rapid decline in auto manufacturing and exports.

Germany’s car industry facing its Detroit moment
Reuters compared the challenge facing Germany with 1970s Detroit, where a rapid decline in the auto industry decimated the entire city.

This is no exaggeration.

Germany’s auto industry has slumped to a 22-year low, putting almost 1 million jobs at risk. A tenth of those jobs are expected to disappear in the next decade. Cuts will take place at carmakers themselves (BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler) and suppliers in the region (Michelin, Bosch, Continental).

In some areas of the country, auto-workers make up 15% of the workforce. The effect of these cuts on spending, consumption and GDP is hard to even quantify.

Volkmar Denner, CEO of Bosch after announcing thousands of jobs cuts at the auto supplier, noted:

It could well be that we have passed the peak of automotive production.

Tesla domination spreads to Europe
Most of the challenges facing Germany’s automative industry can be traced to the rising demand for electric cars.

When Tesla launched the Model 3 in Europe last year, it instantly outsold rival sedans at BMW and Mercedes. It was the third best-selling car, period, in December. Elon Musk is now readying a Tesla gigafactory in Germany itself to capitalize on demand.

US car sales peaked in 2016 and have been decreasing ever since, while EV sales are increasing year by year – German engineer.

Problem is, electric cars don’t require the same workforce to build. As Reuters writes, ‘electric cars provide less assembly work than combustion engine vehicles.’

Stefan Bratzel, German Center of Automotive Management explained:

The transition [to electric] could well mark the end of the golden age for cars as a mass employer.

The Tesla effect
This isn’t just about Tesla’s sales numbers either. It’s a bigger shift. From day one, Tesla’s goal has been to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.’

They’ve been incredibly successful. Tesla has forced the entire automotive industry to shift to electric vehicles and brought down the cost of EVs. It’s a move that Germany’s car companies have been too slow to adapt to.

Indeed, a German engineer added:

It is time to face the uncomfortable truth that the German automakers do not have a single car, be it a gas/diesel car or an electric car, in production or in development today that can compete with the Model 3.

It’s not just Europe. Demand for Tesla vehicles in crucial markets like China is soaring. While demand for Germany’s cars has declined for 17 months straight.

Analysts have speculated about this Tesla disruption for years, but with Germany now on the brink of recession, the reality is finally hitting home. If Germany’s car companies don’t act now, the country may enter a crippling downturn.
I thought Tesla is rescuing Germany from ruin by building a gigafactory and building cars there? Why are they complaining?
 
Impressive but I do like Porsche. They are very fine. 911 Turbo S.

You can't support $3.7T in annual GDP with $200K cars.

The Porsche Taycan 4S - at $103K base; has considerably less range that the Model S or the Model 3, and is slower than the Model S and Model 3.
 
I thought Tesla is rescuing Germany from ruin by building a gigafactory and building cars there? Why are they complaining?
It is the not invented here GM syndrome. GM received thousands of suggestions over the years on how to improve their operations. They were never adopted unless the idea came internally.
 
Guys....guys, for real. I did not know there were so many fan boys in this thread. What's even more funny is the fact that the Trump supporters are as easy to offend as the liberal snowflakes :D

All I wanted to say is: Look at the article! Everyone with half a brain can see it's bullshit

1. A country is not run by a CEO

2. A niche company is not influencing the 4th strongest country by GDP.

3. Germany is a service country, only 30% of the GDP is from industrial production. Car exports are only 18% of the total exports and only 6% (aka. 30% of total car exports) goes to the US.
Do you really think it matters for Germany whenTesla sells a couple more cars to boomers in Cali?

4. The price of a stock is neither influenced by the quality of the product or the president, only buyers and sellers can do that.

5. Who on earth is this "German Engineer" who is quoted all the time in the report. Is he the stereotypical equivalent to the cowboy from Texas, just because Americans think all Germans are engineers?

If you base your investment decisions on stuff like this, you should think about another hobby.

End of "discussion". I'm out.
 
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