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Germany's Merz firms up opposition to combustion engine ban | dpa international
(dpa-international.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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ELI15 Why are car companies in Europe so stuck with cars other than eletric? Shouldn't eletric have better margins and include State/European incentives? And it is also cheaper in the long run for the consumer.
Sadly margins are lower and they need to buy the costly components (batteries) and the resources for motors (rare earth minerals) in China.
They didn’t diversify the supply chain in time and didn’t react when China was contracting all mineral sources in Africa. Now they are on a Chinese lifeline for EVs.
There are some approaches to recycle batteries for rare earths and to construct motors without rare earth, but until then the worth is creates elsewhere.
The thing is a lot of state-of-the-art EV tech is actually developed and manufactured in Germany but car companies are run by 200 year old vampires who have their heads stuck in their own backside.
So what happens is that Bosch - one of the leading EV motor manufacturers is about to fire 13 000 workers in Germany in a time when everything is about to be electrified. Merz‘ party also seeks to reestablish gas deals with Russia even though renewables are actually cheaper.
Rare earths are also found in more place each year and recycling them becomes more and more feasible as well. It won‘t always be a Chinese monopoly unless we make it so
But alas. In a time when the rest of the world is looking forward, German politics and the economy hit the break as if they could stop the inevitable. It‘s another depressing chapter of stagnation under Christian Democrats.
Doesn’t change the point, that that state-of-the-art tech doesn’t drive the price.
Less moveable/mechanical parts, more electronics…
The margins lay in combustion engines in oversized fat SUV starting at 50.000€ , and they want to keep that cash cow alive.
I imagine they're so stuck on it because when it comes to electrics they are losing against the cheaper china EVs.
Not that they're alone with it.