• The Forums are now open to new registrations, adverts are also being de-tuned.

Whats your strategy for year 2030 / ban of ICE vehicles?

ALFAitalia said:
Not at twenty or so years old......look how many owners on this very forum drive Mercs way older than that. My car is 14 years old and 170,000 miles.....its far from scrap!! My wifes Merc is 17 years old. There will always be a source of a suitable part somewhere.
Click to expand...
When Covid arrived, an ideal car for those still commuting but wanting to avoid public transport would have been my (then) 14 year old smart fortwo. Alas, laid up due to the failure of the ABS/ESP ECU which MB asked (then) £1700 for a replacement (part only, no labour).
A frugal (50+mpg everywhere) petrol engined car relevant still as a commuter side-lined (and will likely be scrapped) for the want of a circuit board. Good luck keeping the diesels supplied with NOx sensors.
ALFAitalia said:
I would not mind betting that many of these EVs will have failed due to terminal ECU or software failure long before their ICE equivalent.
Click to expand...
At least there will be some impetus in maintaining supply of parts for EVs given they are the flavour of the month while ICE is to be discontinued.
ALFAitalia said:
How long will they even keep supplying software updates for these new EVs?
Click to expand...
Will continued updates be necessary once the initial bugs have been ironed out?
 
MikeInWimbledon said:
From today's Times:

German car companies suffer heavy electric shock​

Click to expand...

If the story has got as far as the general media it must be bad. The automotive press reported it a week ago. As I mentioned earlier it isn't just Germany or the EU, the growth in demand for EV's is tanking in most markets around the world. The US forums are running this same story. The manufacturers have pushed the switch to EV's too far too fast and come unstuck. Western automotive manufacturers have been falling over themselves to announce that they will cease IC engine production well before the political deadlines, presumably because they thought they could make more money out of EV's. This is now looking like a mistake. Toyota has been a good deal smarter.

It's an unfortunate irony that the switch to EV's is going to hand the Chinese, large chunks of our automotive market on a plate, given that the Chinese are the major source of global warming pollution that is driving the world towards net zero targets in the first place.
 
Londonscottish said:
I think I'll end with something relatively new and efficient and something old and fun. With a **** off big engine in it.
Click to expand...
Phew, Glad you clarified that.
For a moment I thought you were talking about Mrs LondonScottish.
 
Dryce said:
Don't get me started on this!

My current beef is the younger family members pontificating about being green in their homes and then they and their peers arrange destination weddings with large numbers of family and friends crossing to other continents for what is effectively a well heeled garden party.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the eco-protestors we see on the TV haven't one this sort of thing.
Click to expand...
I hate this trend. My son just about beggared himself to attend his best mates wedding in Greece - don't the groom and bride think about the impact on others? Yes, he could have not gone, but they had grown up together and always been part of each others lives. I'll bet this applies to a fair number too
 
Bobby Dazzler said:
I know more than 100 people with an EV, and I’d estimate that of those:
  • Around 90% are company cars and 10% privately owned (or financed)
  • Around 80% between 30 and 50 years old, with 20% over 50
  • Around 70% are mostly used by male drivers and 30% female drivers
  • Close to 100% are premium and/or full-size, just a couple of city cars
  • Close to 100% have replaced a similar premium or city ICE car
  • Close to 100% have at least one more car in the household
  • Around 10% have more than one EV in the household
  • Close to 100% use an EV as their main car, including holidays
  • Jaguar iPace is by far the most common, with BMW a distant second
  • Tesla Model 3/Y is most popular when there is a free choice of EV brand
  • Porsche Taycan has the most positive and least negative comments
  • Close to 100% wouldn’t want to go back to ICE at all…
Click to expand...
Interesting. Would also be interesting to know the % who charge on their drive?
 
ALFAitalia said:
Never!!....Id rather walk. If I'm lucky I might be able to drive until, what?....2050 or so?......there will still be plenty of ICE around for at least 20 years past the 2023 new ICE ban for me to choose from......whether the Gov will allow it to be affordable to run one is another thing!
Most people are not car fans though and could not care less what powers there car.
Click to expand...
And there it is in a nutshell. I'd be willing to place a wager that ICE owners will be squeezed till our eyes water. Firstly to virtue signal and secondly to replace the fuel tax.
 
Gollom said:
And there it is in a nutshell. I'd be willing to place a wager that ICE owners will be squeezed till our eyes water. Firstly to virtue signal and secondly to replace the fuel tax.
Click to expand...
But will they?

That nice Mr Starmer seems politically sensitive to the demands of the Working man, woman, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary and genderqueer.

Perhaps Labour will just borrow another few hundred billion and not worry about the gaping hole in the motoring tax pot ?

It's only money and it'll be someone else's problem to repay the debt after he's gone.

No-one remembers that Tony increased the annual tax revenues by two thirds from £300 billion to £500 billion.

Politicians get remembered for how they spent money.

.

.
 
190 said:
.
.It's an unfortunate irony that the switch to EV's is going to hand the Chinese, large chunks of our automotive market on a plate....
Click to expand...

I think that this is inevitable.

Take away the engine and transmission, what relative manufacturing advantage do German automakers have?

Remember how car manufacturers used to outsource the design to Italian firms? The current situation with EVs is a missed opportunity for globalisation. If the Germans outsourced manufacturing of EVs to China and Korea, they would have maintained their overall lead in the automotive market. But they tried to do everything in house, and now they risk losing the lead, at least as far as EVs go.
 
Last edited:
markjay said:
I think that this is inevitable.

Take away the engine and transmission, what relative manufacturing advantage do German automakers have?
Click to expand...
Heritage, design, quality, quality control (cough), marketing, sales distribution....
 
markjay said:
What price....?
Click to expand...
World leaders in capital goods: China wouldn't be where it is today without German industrial equipment.

The S class: default choice of every world leader, dictator, and captain of industry.
 
MikeInWimbledon said:
World leaders in capital goods: China wouldn't be where it is today without German industrial equipment.
Click to expand...

:thumb: You know that I am a proponent of globalisation...

MikeInWimbledon said:
...The S class: default choice of every world leader, dictator, and captain of industry.
Click to expand...

True, but the numbers are too small to keep Mercedes Benz alive just off the back of this market.
 
markjay said:
Not me :)

I live in a block of flats and charge the car overnight from a lampost while parked in the street.
Click to expand...
I assumed Steve was referring to the same group of people I had referred to on my long list quote, which was only people I know in the real-world. If I add you to that group then I should amend my answer fo be “Close-ish to 100%”
 
markjay said:
:thumb: You know that I am a proponent of globalisation...
True, but the numbers are too small to keep Mercedes Benz alive just off the back of this market.
Click to expand...
Moi aussi. I want Welshmen drinking aimlessly in pubs and singing in choirs, not sent down the mines at 15 for a lifetime of hot wretched misery, followed by a painful death from Black Lung disease in their late 50's.

We have Chinese, Indians, Americans and Australians who are much better suited to that stuff, globally.

The point about the S Class, and Affalterbach, is that they're the halo for the rest of the brand.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top Bottom