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Comment by leonidasrup | Hacker News Reader

German car industry can produce state of art ICE, because they can manufacture the heart of ICE - the engine.

German car industry is trailing with EVs, because they can not manufacture the heart of EV - the battery.

I hope they can compete with plugin hybrids. We have a BMW X5 plugin hybrid, bought on the advice of a friend, and it's such a great car. Almost always on electric in town, and for the rare times we go on road trips we never have to worry about range anxiety.

I really feel that plugin hybrids with 40-50 miles of electric range are the ideal car for like 85%+ of Americans whose usual daily commute could all be done on electric. I've heard all the arguments against them, and after owning 2 PHEVs (Chevy Volt before this), I disagree with all these arguments. Yes, I understand that they're more complicated that a pure EV, I know pure EVs will be the future (I'll also be dead in the future), but my ownership experience with PHEVs over the past decade proved they were the perfect car for me. Never had any reliability issues, and despite hearing arguments that they are "the worst of both worlds", they were definitely the best of both worlds for me - all the benefits of an EV (low operating cost, fantastic acceleration, quiet, smooth ride, almost no trips to the gas station) with none of the downsides (didn't need to install an expensive charger at home as the wall charger was sufficient, never had to worry about range anxiety, never had to carefully plan road trips around charger locations).

I think you're directionally correct. But that BMW will likely turn into a maintenance nightmare in 10 years when electronics modules start failing and new replacement parts are no longer available. Might be best to lease it instead of buying for those who can afford that option.

I think the biggest problem with German EVs are not the battery but the software. EVs are practically computers on a wheel and compared to the competitors the software and features it offers are still terrible. I remember VW even had a huge joint venture with Rivian to get things back on track. But seems like it didn’t work out

Is the Chinese automotive software better than the German equivalent?

> EVs are practically computers on a wheel

aren't all cars these days?

>EVs are practically computers on a wheel

There’s nothing about EV drivetrain that requires more complicated software than ICE powertrain. It’s just consumerism telling people that their next vehicle (whatever drivetrain) should be an iPad, a home cinema, and a PlayStation all-in-one.

The biggest problem with German EVs are not the software but the battery. The battery is the most expensive component in an EV:

https://thundersaidenergy.com/downloads/electric-vehicle-cos...

As EVs are computers on a wheel, there is no reason why the same computer can not be installed into an ICE car.

that's not the issue, you can buy the batteries if you wanted to. The problem is that EVs require about 50% less labor than ICE cars and this is the first time since the 80s that German car companies have started to fire anyone or close plants. Car companies here aren't price competitive, software or a battery you can always purchase.

China has the big advantage of having designed these car companies around drastically reduced labor needs and until we adapt to that we're not going to compete on the most important factor which is how much the car costs.

> German car industry is trailing with EVs, because they can not manufacture the heart of EV - the battery.

"We tried nothing and we're all out of ideas!" ... The German car industry could have seen the EV revolution coming a mile off, but instead of embracing it, it did nothing. Well, it faked some diesel tests, so I suppose not nothing, but not useful.

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