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Thousands of electric cars are parked in the well-guarded area of a disused airport in Brandenburg and other similar places. The press is denied entry, the footage is from a helicopter. The secret lies in the fact that the state mega-project of e-mobility, of the last German governments, seems to be failing, since there is no more money for its subsidy. The bonus of up to 4,500 euros/e-car fell prematurely at the end of last year.
Black clouds gather over the Tesla car factory, Germany Photo: Patrick Pleul / AFP / Profimedia Images
A survey by the German automobile club ADAC from last week optimistically announces: “Despite the loss of state funding, the willingness to buy an electric car, in the medium term, has not decreased. At the same time, leasing remains popular as a form of financing. This is demonstrated by the current survey conducted by ADAC SEin which more than 3,000 people were surveyed in February and March 2024, regarding the ownership, purchase and financing of electric cars for private use”.
And yet, current demand for them has collapsed, industry standard bearer Tesla is losing billions on the E-auto stock market, as reported on April 8, Merkur.de.
The trick with the funds
15 million electric cars by 2030 was the federal government’s self-imposed goal. But this one is in danger of failing. As a result of the decision of the German Constitutional Court, from November 15, 2023, “the government is not allowed to use, for climate protection, budget funds dedicated to combating Covid19.
“Germany’s highest court announced that amending the supplementary budget is unconstitutional“, I have been writing since last year.
As a result of the budget decision in Karlsruhe, the federal government has stopped state support for the purchase of electric cars from 17 December 2023, this was announced by the Federal Ministry of Economics, headed by Robert Habeck. And since this is from Verzi, we can assume that the announcement was also accompanied by gnashing of teeth.
In the wake of e-car overstocks
But let’s get back to the Spiegel report, from May 1, which in two days reached almost 800,000 views and 4,200 comments, only on Youtube.
At a car fair under the motto “Car Spring”, reporters talk to the world. High prices and food options scare off some visitors. “If it was offered to me at the price of a gasoline car and it didn’t have to be refueled for 1,000 km, I would immediately buy it,” expresses one man’s position.
Four percent more car registrations were registered in Germany in the first quarter of this year compared to 2023. In the E-car chapter, there were 14% less. Bidders at the fair for Tesla do not give any data to journalists, about sales and the “resonance” of the action. Communication is “cutting edge”.
And at the top is the giga-factory in Grünheide, near Berlin, where Tesla, despite repeated protests and opposition from the locals, built his big electric car factory in Germany. Production started two years ago, inaugurated with pomp and “figures”, by Elon Musk and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Elon and Olaf”, looking to the future, comments Spiegel.
Olaf thinks this was “the right decision”. Elon talks about “sustainable future”. Should it be so, given that 10% of Tesla’s employees were notified by email of layoffs, so that the company remains “lean, innovative and hungry”?
The route of the report expands on the “provincial” route in Brandenburg, which the road trains with electric cars constantly tread, even causing damage to the sidewalks and some houses on the route, with cracked walls from the trepidations induced by the heavy traffic.
There is talk of 100 road trains, daily. They leave the giga-factory charged and return empty. The cargo is parked in the area of a former military airport, kept secret during the Second World War, at Neuhardenberg.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of e-cars are parked there, presumably for sale. But maybe also because of overproduction. But no one on the spot is willing to provide information to journalists, and filming in the area is prohibited. A guard says that “those who open their mouths fly”. Finally!
Merkel and the millions
This silence was probably not imagined by the former chancellor Angela Merkel, who four years ago promised 15 million electric cars of the future and a million charging stations for them by 2030. That means the second car registered in Germany it would be electric. A beautiful dream?
Not only Tesla is under scrutiny by German journalists, but also other automakers with visions for the future. Among them, Volkswagen, which invested 1.2 billion euros in the factory in Zwickau, which exclusively produces electric cars.
We can easily deduce that investments of this kind, in development, are reflected in the price of the cars bought, which is not really small. But every progress has its price. But the question remains: Is electro-mobility, in Europe, a partly failed project?
