German carmakers urged to invest more in electric vehicles
BERLIN: German carmakers must invest more in electric vehicles and take on Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc, said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff on Saturday.
Peter Altmaier said he was thoroughly disappointed by German auto executives following the diesel-emissions scandal and that he was also thinking about the future of the 600,000 employees in the industry.
“When is our automobile industry, which is so good, actually going to be in a position to build a car that travels 50km further than a Tesla and costs €10,000 (RM51,000) less?” said Altmaier at a public forum, here, on Saturday. “It must be possible to set this as a goal.”
He referred to Tesla cars costing US$100,000 (RM427,000) with a range of 400km. Tesla’s Germany website shows a Model X Tesla with a range of as much as 417km selling for €91,250.
Tesla has added a more affordable vehicle, the Model 3 sedan, which starts at US$35,000, with initial deliveries in July.
“If the automobile industry doesn’t grasp the fact that it has to invest more in electric vehicles, especially in cities, then it will be very hard to defend combustion engines — petrol and diesel — over the long term,” said Altmaier. “We must do all we can now, so that the best electric cars are built in Germany.”
Volkswagen, Daimler AG and BMW AG reached a deal with the government this month to upgrade five million newer diesel cars and offer trade-in incentives on older models, but this hasn’t eliminated concern about emission levels.
Car buyers have been slow to purchase all-electric models due to concerns about how far the vehicles can travel on a fully charged battery, prices and the time needed to recharge.
Among German manufacturers, only BMW currently offers an electric vehicle, the i3, that isn’t based on a combustion-engine car. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz brand and VW outlined plans a year ago to produce all-new battery-only models by the end of the decade to challenge Tesla. Bloomberg