[comandillos]

Is either that or Germany letting their automakers that have not been able to adapt to the new EV era just die... and nobody wants to see what is that impact of that over the whole European economy...

[wongarsu]

According to [1] Volkswagen was the third largest producer of EVs in 2022, only behind BYD and Tesla. And BMW and Mercedes Benz both are in the top 10. It's not like German automakers have been sitting on their hands or would just die. The problem is not so much the automakers themselves but their suppliers. Those employ far more people, and EVs just don't need a lot of those parts.

1: https://www.ev-volumes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/WW-S3-...

[Vespasian]

It's not the automakers. Those have long since started to transition to BEVs and do offer some attractive options which are produced at scale and can often be seen on the streets where I am (not near any of the OEM headquarters). They have also mostly stopped R&D on ICE technology

The issue is with the suppliers and suppliers of suppliers which are a backbone of German industry and some of which cannot transition away ICE technology.

Of course e-fuels are not going to safe them anyway but their lobbying caused this.

[ZeroGravitas]

The automakers did put up initial resistance, some Japanese brands still are. But this particular political compromise is just a libertarian party needing a workaround to avoid to be seen banning something that everyone knows will be obsolete by that time anyway.

The EV transition is accelerating, this is just the minimum that could get cross EU support in law today. But individual countries already have their own phase outs.

[izacus]

All the big German automakers have launched good EVs by now and they've been successful on the market as well in Europe.

Which ones are you talking about?