The administration may remove this off-topic if deemed necessary, but I will comment anyway.
The fact that you dig up isolated cases from the internet doesn’t indicate any design flaw, especially when there’s no certainty about the failure mechanism or cause. Components, for example, always have faulty individual units that break prematurely, whether it’s a deep groove ball bearing or roller bearings.
In this particular case, something entirely different was suspected as the cause than a Tesla designer’s wrong bearing choice:
Here’s a video demonstrating how torsional vibration is generated; it can certainly arise from other sources too, but for the sake of simplicity, it’s presented this way, hopefully this helps in understanding what it’s all about.
This is good news in a way, but China is not necessarily the best partner, but Chinese technology is competitive, so in that sense, it’s the best solution.
Only RDI phase plans. That is such a new area that no one has competitive technology yet, and the landscape can still change many times before these even go into production.
Good news also comes from the USA, meaning +7% growth in the beginning of the year. Especially the ID.4 and ID.Buzz saw growth. The price reduction of the ID.Buzz (compensation for the end of subsidies?) to just under $50,000 and the two-tone paint job got Americans interested. The best sales area for the ID.Buzz is California, a state with more charging stations than gas stations.
The third sales booster was the gasoline-powered Taos, which received a small tune-up with its facelift, meaning over 200hp are extracted from the 1.5-liter engine.
Not surprising. After all, the original “bulli” has its own legendary reputation as a road trip car and a relic of hippie culture precisely on the West Coast.
In a Democratic state, the ID.Buzz’s reputation is at the opposite end compared to Tesla’s current reputation. Perhaps VW’s California camper van will also be remade on the ID.Buzz platform someday. So far, it has been postponed to the future (weight, demand?).
Here’s SalkunRakentaja’s article about Volkswagen’s goings-on.
The European electric car market is undergoing a significant transformation, and the first quarter of 2025 brought perhaps a surprising piece of news: German car manufacturer Volkswagen has overtaken American electric car manufacturer Tesla and become the continent’s largest seller of electric cars.
Subheadings:
Germany’s major car brands make a comeback
Volkswagen has a long way to go to strong profitability
Tesla struggles with several difficulties in the European market
Volkswagen’s Q1 in its largest market, China: all cars -7% and BEVs -37%. Was there any other explanatory factor for these figures than not being able to compete?
The Chinese have copied industrial car manufacturing from Western countries and then amplified it even further.
It strongly appears that the Western automotive industry cannot compete without tariff protection. Of course, China’s subsidy policy unfairly boosts Chinese companies.
Competition in the automotive industry is tough, and significant differences between car brands are diminishing, which further intensifies price competition.
Audi is selling well, yes, now the VAG group seems to be taking a reasonable share of the EV market, just as I have expected and hopefully it will continue.
(It didn’t quite fit into one screenshot, so it’s in two parts.)
Autonomous driving is progressing, and perhaps it’s new information that VW has been involved with AV technology for quite some time already, and there are many partners, which is naturally important for the breakthrough of robotaxi services and for testing the technology as widely as possible, which accelerates development and adoption.
Edit.
“Quite some time” means over ten years, for example, news from 2017
Piech’s acquisitions are being put up for sale, meaning Italdesign has been put up for sale. Volkswagen’s collaboration began when Piech chose Italdesign to design the first generation Golf, Passat, Scirocco, and Audi 80. The official acquisition of Italdesign took place in 2010 when 90% of the shares were bought by Lamborghini Holding. Giorgetto Giugiaro sold his remaining 10% ownership in 2015.
Does anyone still remember Dieselgate, VW’s emission fraud? The German judiciary certainly does, as yesterday the Brunswick District Court in Lower Saxony sentenced four former VW executives to prison terms.
Jens Hadler, the then head of VW’s diesel engine development department, was sentenced to an unconditional prison term of 4 years and 6 months. Heinz-Jakob Neusser, head of the engine department, received a suspended prison sentence of one year and three months. He also assisted the police in the investigation, which led to a lighter sentence. Chief Technology Officer Hanno Jelden was sentenced to an unconditional prison term of 2 years and 7 months. In contrast, former executive Thorsten D (surname not released to the public), who assisted and helped the police in the investigation, was sentenced to a suspended prison term of one year and 10 months. Martin Winterkorn, the then CEO of the VW Group, was also supposed to be in the dock, but his trial has always been postponed due to health reasons.
Charges against about a dozen individuals were dropped because they assisted in the investigation and agreed to testify in court. 31 people are still awaiting prosecution. In addition, an investor lawsuit of 9 billion euros from investor groups is also awaiting processing.
Furthermore, the USA has issued international arrest warrants for VW’s former executives, but Germany does not extradite its own citizens to non-EU countries. Thus, they have avoided charges in US courts. Those already convicted in the USA have received prison sentences of 4-6 years and millions in compensation. Oliver Schmidt, the then VW executive in the USA, was arrested in a “television-style” FBI operation in the men’s restroom at Miami Airport in Florida, as he tried to escape on a plane to Germany. Schmidt received an unconditional sentence of 7 years.
All in all, Dieselgate has directly caused VW losses of approximately 33 billion euros… so far.
A minor uproar arose in Germany regarding Jörg Schlagbauer of Audi (Vice Chairman of Audi’s Supervisory Board, etc.) and his statements in interviews with Automobilwoche. There he states, among other things, “I do not believe customers will let politicians and manufacturers dictate to them what products they should drive” and continues, “Previously, we made some regrettable decisions, guided by Volkswagen, such as a very strong commitment to electric mobility. By focusing on electric mobility, we also lost production flexibility, which would have been needed when mandatory electric mobility did not work as planned.” .. “I just don’t believe we will be ready by 2035, especially regarding the infrastructure required for electric mobility.”
German car manufacturers have taken steps back in electrification, emulating the policy of the USA’s Big Three. Ola Källenius of Mercedes has announced that Mercedes will keep petrol/diesel engines in production longer than planned and that the company has made a course correction. At the same time, Mercedes brought V8 engines back into production. Oliver Zipse of BMW had already stated earlier that the EU’s 2035 target is no longer realistic.
Not everyone has believed in it from the start. Now, the changed global situation has generally confused (or rather, clarified) the minds of many dreamers. We have to wait until the situation between Russia and the USA clarifies and we can get back to at least a somewhat sensible line.
For VW, the last 20 years have been characterized by a clear rise followed by a rapid fall after accelerated growth. Now, it’s an atypical situation that the stock has been in a slower downward trend.
Now is the time for those who believe that VW’s mass is slow-moving but strong enough to maintain market position and succeed in product development. Image issues have an impact for a while, but they are forgotten if the product and marketing succeed. Mistakes made are a sign that creativity exists, albeit also unnecessary risk-taking ability. If no mistakes are made, one cannot succeed exceptionally either.
