"Those who drove an Opel Corsa yesterday will go by bus tomorrow," says a former Volkswagen executive

Combustion cars are sentenced to death in Europe.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
13 March 2023 Monday 18:17
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"Those who drove an Opel Corsa yesterday will go by bus tomorrow," says a former Volkswagen executive

Combustion cars are sentenced to death in Europe. As of 2035, with few exceptions, it will no longer be possible to sell new copies powered by gasoline, diesel or gas. This forces brands to accelerate the transformation of the sector towards electromobility, which means a great economic and social change in many areas. Although progress is being made, the pace is being slower than expected.

The lack of charging infrastructure, the limited autonomy of electric cars and their high price are obstacles that must be overcome to boost their expansion. A former Volkswagen executive has spoken about all this and much more in an interview published by Business Insider. This is the engineer Jens Andersen, who worked for the German company for almost three decades.

He joined the company in 1990 as a production planner and held various positions, each time of higher rank, until he became the head of Technological Strategy and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Mobility. In addition, he completed his PhD with a thesis on Natural Gas Fueled Gasoline Engines vs. Electrified Drives. Since 2018, when he left the Volkswagen Group, he has been working as an executive consultant and advisor to the board for the Strategy Expert Group.

This expert, who is currently 60 years old, has reflected in the aforementioned interview on the challenges that the industry must face, especially the German one, and society in this paradigm shift. In a context in which Toyota leads the hybrid propulsion and Tesla the electric, the German industry is putting the batteries. Andersen does not doubt that it is a matter of time before Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche regain technological leadership in the premium segment.

Another thing is what can happen in the general segment: "In Germany, people who until now had opted for basic range vehicles seem to be inclined towards subscription, car sharing and public transport. Those who yesterday drove an Opel Corsa , tomorrow they will go by bus".

This change in habits is forced largely for economic reasons. And it is that each is much more expensive to be able to buy a car. In Moveo, we already inform that in our country currently no new specimens are sold for less than 10,000 euros. According to data from the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), in the period between 2017 and 2022, the average price has increased by 37%.

And electric cars are more expensive than their combustion equivalents. Aid for purchases -such as the Spanish Moves III plan- can serve to encourage the acquisition of these vehicles, but neither are they a panacea nor can they be prolonged forever.

An example is found in Norway, which closed 2022 with an electric car market share of almost 80% thanks to the incentives offered for its purchase. However, the Norwegian government found it untenable to keep them and on January 1 they were no longer available. This explains the collapse in sales registered since then.

Thus, it is necessary to lower the prices of these cars to make them more accessible. However, Anderser sees it difficult - at least in terms of those produced in Europe - and believes that the European commissioner, Frans Timmermans, will not be able to fulfill his promise that electric cars are more economical than combustion ones.

"On the contrary, even in the long term, e-mobility will remain considerably more expensive than cheaper combustion engines. The time for affordable individual mobility made in Europe is coming to an end without additional accompanying measures," he said. .

In addition, he has made reference to the challenge of adapting factories to electric cars, which will need less manpower, which will lead to layoffs. All this at a time when the Chinese industry is gaining momentum and can offer products at lower prices. "A vehicle like the MG4, which the Chinese group SAIC offers for around 30,000 euros in Germany, would hardly be profitable if it were produced in Europe. Not at this price, and even less so in the current economic conditions," said the engineer.