I will never forget that lesson of the superiority of the German executive. It was in the good old days of the combustion engine. He invited me inside a car fresh off the assembly line. We closed the doors and started the engine.
– Tell me, what do you feel?
I didn't feel anything. No noise from outside. No engine murmur. Nothing.
– Do you understand? – he flashed a friendly smile – This is only possible with German technology.
I admit it looks like a commercial. But it was so. The automobile was the most powerful industry, the one that innovated the most and the one that justified Germanic hegemony on the continent. Two decades have passed since that day and The Economist is once again talking about Germany as the "sick of Europe".
Germany's bad situation has to do with their decisions. In energy And in the electric car, to which they have arrived late in a market today dominated by China.
Deciding on a car has never been easy. Today it is more difficult. There are electric cars. There are hybrids. Plug-in hybrids. Gasoline cars. Second-hand cars at skyrocketing prices due to lack of first-hand cars. Models that take months to arrive... And there are Chinese electric cars. cheaper
The European Commission has announced that it will investigate whether Chinese cars are subsidized and unfair competition for European manufacturers. It's true: there are local Chinese governments that have given away land to manufacturers or financed them at zero credit. But it is also because steel and electronics are cheaper there. And that the Chinese are way ahead in battery manufacturing.
China is flooding the world with cars today as it did with Christmas items decades ago. Chinese exports have fallen. But not the cars, which don't stop going up. There is so much production capacity, and there are so many electric cars on the local market, that manufacturers don't know what to do with their stock of gasoline cars. They have no choice but to export and export.
Every time I see a Chinese car (and every day I will see more) I remember the German executive. And I think it must be difficult to make the right decisions when you are so high up.
