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Comment by FridayoLeary | Hacker News Reader

I don't think they care. They are chasing the higher profit margins that come with selling "premium" models and sacrificing the budget market to the chinese.

Another point about the id range; they rushed it out with half baked software and UX. They probably resolved most of this but it's disturbing that they would do it in the first place.

Finally how much cheaper is electricity? Since 2020 the prices have more then doubled and the prices of charging in service stations are huge. I'm not sure that in the future private vehicles will be affordable as they are today.

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> They are chasing the higher profit margins that come with selling "premium" models and sacrificing the budget market to the chinese.

Well, also, they've been increasingly pushing cheap stuff out of the VW brand over the last decade or so. I'd suspect that, when the dust settles, they'll have something around the 20k mark, but it'll be Skoda or SEAT, not VW.

> Finally how much cheaper is electricity? Since 2020 the prices have more than doubled and the prices of charging in service stations are huge.

This may be a regional-differences thing (in particular, I bet it differs at least in timing based on whether you're in a mostly-wind country or a mostly-solar country), but at least in Ireland you can sign up to an electricity plan that gives you electricity for like 8 cent/kWh at 02:00-04:00 (vs ~30c at peak times and ~15c at night); this is explicitly marketed at electric car users. Here's a fairly typical example; note that it actually has EV in the name (though it doesn't actually require one or anything). https://www.electricireland.ie/residential/electricity-and-g...

Unfortunately VW is the only brand of the above they bring to the US. On this side of the pond we don't get the option to buy those others. (unless you import it yourself, but you have to be rich to pay all the costs - last I heard you would have to import 10 for crash testing, and I don't know what else is needed)

Oh, right, yeah, are they even launching this in the US? AFAIK they did not launch the ID.3, their current cheapest VW-branded model, there.

> they rushed it out with half baked software and UX.

Are we back to the "wait for service pack" era ?

Sadly, yes, I think we are (or at least really close to it).

No, in reality it's "buy a newer model of the same car" strategy. They don't really care about the current/old model.

> I'm not sure that in the future private vehicles will be affordable as they are today.

That’s a good thing, if you ask me.

Good only if public transport gets significantly more coverage end frequency, otherwise more working class people get financially wrecked. Not everyone lives in Amsterdam, Vienna, Berlin or London to not need a car.

Something for everyone to work on... Even if you love driving eventually you will get old and be unable to drive safely.

>Something for everyone to work on

And who do you think is gonna work on that? Because politicians aren't gonna start building trains for you where you live, so you're left to fix your own situation by driving a car to work since your boss isn't gonna move his company where you live so you can walk/bike there.

>Even if you love driving eventually you will get old and be unable to drive safely.

Where do you see me saying anything about liking driving? I also don't like brushing my teeth but I still do it because it's a necessity just like driving is for a lot of people in smaller and highly spread out cities where frequent subways/trains are not a thing.

Sure, we can all try to move to big cities with top public transport where you don't need a car, but those cities already have a housing shortage and it's only gonna get worse.

Politicians do what they think voters want them to do. Thus talk to your neighbors about this and point out that they could have good transit service (if you live in the US you might be the only neighborhood in your state, but you can point to other countries). Write letters to your politicians. Attend community meetings. Make sure you build bridges with conservatives - there are many conservatives pro transit messages but nobody knows them. Be careful about bridges with liberals who don't care about transit except as a way to do something else they want (since this results in bad transit which gives those who are against transit another "it can't work here" project to point to).

None of the above is easy.

>Politicians do what they think voters want them to do. Thus talk to your neighbors about this and point out that they could have good transit service

With what money? Because everyone wants things right now and my city is broke from mismanagement(corruption) and most companies here have had mass layoffs so money is going to welfare now.

And history proves the west has started to suck at building rail infrastructure on time and on budget. By the time any rail would be built here, we'll have flying cars. Plus then you have nimbyis who don't want rail next to their homes.

So then isn't it normal that people still prefer to keep their cars instead of waiting decades for fictional rail that might not happen? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

step one is fix the corruption. That can only happen when voters care about their side more than other things.

rails are expansive but they are timy compared to most of the budget and an investment that saves you (roads which I bet your government pays for)

>step one is fix the corruption.

Easier said than done and you know it. Meanwhile the government is making your car illegal in 10 years, but your job will still need you to be at work by them somehow, that's your problem.

> That can only happen when voters care about their side more than other things.

That's why corruption isn't going anywhere because society is more fragmented and partisan than evet due to the ever increasing number of fires that need putting out. You can't get your county to pull non existent money out of thin air for a 20 year rail project when there's a war next door and million of pensioners and refugees that need money right fucking NOW. So taxman and money printer go brrrrrr.

>rails are expansive but they are timy compared to most of the budget and an investment that saves you (roads which I bet your government pays for)

Yeah but the roads are already there and so are the cars, and people's homes and workplaces were built around that existing road infrastructure. You can't tell them to fuck off somewhere else because in 20 years a rail will be there. Once a you build a dense, car-first society over decades with no space for rail, ripping that off and replacing it with rail is impossible in the west. The nimbys alone will kill it even if you had money to build it.

We have new rail projects built but they're cross country in wilderness, not inside the city where its needed daily.

> Easier said than done and you know it.

Yes, but it is still important to do this. So get out and do your part. Giving up ensures things get worse.

Yes, what Western world really needs is more people moving to already unaffordable big cities, because they can't afford a commute from cheaper areas.

Landlords would really love that.

If there only was a way that would allow people to live and work in a more affordable place, no matter where the company site actually is.

Today it's still a matter of a power struggle between beehive-minded CEOs and employees, but if things get more tense, I believe a state intervention would be an excellent option.

Not in the way you think. We are going to keep the same, but older, ICE fleet running for many more years, unfortunately.

Yep this. The EU is one of the champions on regulatory self-owns/own-goals like these by pushing legislation that sounds good on the surface without too much though, but ends up having worse send and third order effects.

Examples like:

  Giving preference to diesel vehicles because they produced less C02 than gasoline cars, while ignoring the much worse NOx and particulate for human respiratory heath that diesel engines produce(possible lobby from EU car brands involved).

  Denuclearization, because nuclear is scary and dangerous,  that pushed energy prices up and use of coal which killed more people via respiratory issues than Chernobyl and Fukushima (possible lobby from Russian oil and gas involved)

Banning ICE cars prematurely before the market, charging infrastructure and consumer demand can catch up on its own, will have similar negative effects.

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