Jo Borras, Steve Hanley, and I gathered around CleanTechnica’s pineapple-infused sparkling water cooler for our new CleanTech RoundTalk to discuss a few of the most popular EV news articles from the previous week.
The announcement of the Volkswagen ID. Buzz’s UK pricing was one of those articles. The Buzz is not inexpensive. Undoubtedly, we talked about the cost of the brand-new, electric, futuristic version of the legendary VW van. However, we went much further than that, talking about the VW hippy bus’s initial advantages, aesthetic, and function as well as how those compare to and contrast with the modern ID. Buzz. In order to get to the heart of the 2022 update, we each offered our opinions on how much the car may appeal to people’s cultural sentiments and nostalgia in their 70s, 40s, and even 20s and 30s. The essential query: What level of consumer demand exists for the ID. Buzz?
Of course, demand also depends on price. Because more people can afford it at a lesser price, demand increases as a result. Whether Volkswagen miscalculated demand, keeping production low and costs high, is a significant unknown. Check out the podcast using the embedded Spotify player above or any of the podcast networks we publish on: Anchor , Apple Podcasts / iTunes , Breaker , Google Podcasts , Overcast , Pocket , Podbean , Radio Public , Anchor 0, Anchor 1, or Anchor 2 to hear my complete perspective on the subject as well as Jos’s and Steves’.
The other major news item this week was the sales of EVs at a few different firms, including Volkswagen Group (217,000 BEVs were sold in the first half of 2022), Anchor 3 (324,000 BEVs were sold), Tesla (565,000), NIO (51,000), XPeng (69,000), etc. Ironically, we discussed Herbert Diess’ crucial contribution to moving Volkswagen Group forward in the EV revolution and even maybe motivating CATL to become a lithium-ion battery juggernaut when discussing the rise of EV sales at the Volkswagen Group. We also discussed how Diess almost lost his job at the Volkswagen Group a year ago and ultimately did lose his job as the CEO of Volkswagen at the time. We also briefly discussed how he seemed to turn become a Tesla and Elon Musk devotee, possibly offending a lot of people. Diess was fired from his position as CEO of the Volkswagen Group by a short, covert meeting of Volkswagen Group top brass a day after we released this audio. Here are a few of Steve’s sarcastic or appropriate parting remarks on Diess: He has vision. People who are more pragmatic frequently object and say, “Well, we can’t do this and we can’t do that,” to visionaries. He is totally committed to his goal, and he will lead the Volkswagen Group until a member of the management or ownership team decides that enough is enough and that he should be fired. But it appears that he will remain. Or not.
Listen to the complete episode for a ton more information:
The upcoming episode was very recently taped, and we spent much time discussing the Diess removal. Come back to that in a subsequent article, but if you want to start listening now, here are a few audio players for that episode:
Do you value the unique reporting and cleantech news coverage on CleanTechnica? Consider becoming a patron on Anchor 4 or a CleanTechnica Member, Supporter, Technician, or Ambassador.
