What do you do when you make a mistake? The first thing you do – assuming you’re not stupid – is to recognize you’ve made one.
Mercedes-Benz has done at least that much, with regard to the mistake it made committing itself – publicly – to be in the business of selling nothing other than electric vehicles by 2030. As it became clear this would result in the end of Mercedes-Benz, as a business, the German prestige-brand automaker publicly reneged on that commitment. It now says that perhaps half of the vehicles it manufactures will be battery-powered devices by 2030.
This is, as the saying goes, something.
Which is exactly what Mercedes had to do – right now – because even though 2030 sounds as though it’s still more than five years from now, it’s really much closer than that for vehicle manufacturers. It takes time – years – to develop a new engine, for instance. Not just to design it but to prove it. To make sure the design is a good one, as by testing it in real-word use (which is impossible to simulate using a computer; there are too many variables that cannot be programmed in because these must be imagined exactly and that is not yet something that can be perfectly simulated by a computer program).
There is also tooling to take into account – and regulatory rigmarole, too. A new engine must be certified before it can be legally sold. That is to say, an auto manufacturer must obtain approval and permission before it is allowed to sell a new engine.
All of this takes time – years, even. Had Mercedes not decided to walk-back its prior commitment to manufacture nothing other than battery powered devices by 2030, it would only have whatever engines it has right now (and that had already been in development) to carry it through the next five years. If, by 2030, it turned out that the market was still not very interested in devices just like every other manufacturer’s devices – excepting the difference in badge and price – then all it would have to sell, probably not very well, would be devices.
And that would have fatal consequences for its business.
That’s why Mercedes is back to investing in engines – right now – so as to have new engines ready to sell come 2030. So as to keep Mercedes from finding itself with nothing but old engines by 2030.
And to hedge against the suicidally stupid idea of being a seller of nothing but devices.
People who pay Mercedes money tend to expect to get something more for their money than spending more money – or just another device – though there are people who like to show that they can spend more money by spending it and never mind that they didn’t get very much for it. But it’s generally difficult to run a business on that basis. More finely, it is not easy to stay in business on that basis.
So, again, it’s something that’s Mercedes is backing away from its commitment to sell nothing other than devices exclusively. At least, for the next five years or so.
But it’s still only about half as much as Mercedes ought to do. As the industry ought to do. Assuming the industry wishes to remain in business for more than the next five years or so.
Ayn Rand understood – and explained – in her novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Each book explained that there is no complying with the forces of destruction – assuming the idea is to avoid being destroyed. One must oppose them. But before that can happen, one must understand that these forces intend to destroy.
And therein lies the rub.
Most people cannot fathom the depravity of the forces of destruction; they simply do not believe it is possible. Who would want to destroy the car industry? No, these people just want “cleaner” and “safer” cars. Just like the same people who wanted “15 days to stop the spread.”
Now we know what they actually wanted – and very nearly got. That being the near-destruction of the country that existed before the “pandemic.” The country has not yet recovered and it may never recover. There are still hundreds of thousands if not millions of people “masking” – and pathological hypochondria remains latent and ready to percolate on command. How many small businesses were destroyed? How many lives have been destroyed?
Similarly, the forces of destruction do not want “cleaner” and “safer” cars. Those are merely the pretexts they use to get people to accept that which they ultimately want, which is fewer cars. More finely, they want you and pretty much everyone else – excepting themselves, of course – to no longer own or drive a car. The pushing of battery powered devices is merely the vehicle they hope to use to achieve that end.
By now, this intention ought to be as obvious as the intentions of people such as Dr. Fauci and the World Health Organization. And the implication of this understanding ought by now to be, as Jefferson put it, self-evident.
There is no bargaining with the forces of destruction. That idea is suicidally naive. Do rabbits bargain with foxes? And what we – and the industry – are dealing with is something far worse than foxes, who are just animals looking for a meal. The fox is not motivated by a desire to destroy the rabbit. He’s just hungry and doing what’s natural.
The creatures were are dealing with are unnatural things that take human form. They are motivated by (per Rand, who was spot on about this) envy and malice, springing from an awareness of their own baseness and incompetence. Destroyers hate producers because they produce. They cannot abide it because it highlights that they do not produce. That they lack what it takes to produce and so they work to tear down those who can. They market their destructiveness as beneficial – as motivated by a desire to “help” and keep others “safe.”
And that works, because – again – many people have difficulty coming to grips with the nature of human evil. This empowers evil by rendering its victims helpless before it.
The problem is ancient and omnipresent. It waxes – and then it wanes. It will be with us forever, because it will always be us. Yet it can be kept in check by understanding what it is – and that it cannot be bargained with. Only opposed. There is no complying our way out of it.
Mercedes – the industry – has an opportunity to put a stop to all this compliance. It is becoming common knowledge that electric vehicles “work” like “vaccines” – and that “hesitancy” has become much more common than acceptance, let alone willingness. Now is the time to put a stake through the battery, so to speak. Instead of timidly continuing to produce a few more vehicles for a few more years that aren’t battery powered devices, how about no more devices – unless people actually want to buy them?
Enough to justify manufacturing them?
How about standing up to the forces of destruction? How about saying, openly and manfully, that enough is enough – and we’re not playing along anymore?
It should have been said 30 years ago. But there is still time to say it now.
. . .
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Hi Eric,
There is no way Mercedes will “rebel”. German autoindustry is tied with the german government and german government might as well be a US colony.
Whats interesting to me how companies liek this are allowed to lie all the time. I hope someone sues them (lawsuit will never pass due to ties with goverment but still). If I was some crazy EV supporter and I bought shares based on this EV transition It would be just for me to be compensated for it.
Mandatory SPEED LIMITERS… Is this the end of motoring?
No more fun for the slaves….
Geoff and Tony from @Evcarnage discuss whether MANDATORY SPEED LIMITERS will kill off the motoring industry and our whole hobby…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB4KjmOmzY0
Hi Anon,
It will certainly be the end of discretionary driving – and so of any driving fun. That will make most of us not want to drive anymore. Which is just exactly what’s wanted. This has been in the works for years, too. It’s not something that’s coming. It is something that is already here. That has been embedded inmost new cars since about five years ago. It just hasn’t been fully enabled yet.
I clicked on this story to read about something about cars, only to find it the most engrossing, well thought-out, cogent and illustrative treatise on how we got here, and how to stop and degrade any further movement along the ideological bent we are on.
And to back up the arguments with Ayn Rand? BRAVO!
Only people who have read her writings fully understand the perniciousness of our own nature, the self-serving politicians, and of those that proclaim that they are “just doing it to protect the Earth” which is all a bunch of hogwash.
If these people really wanted a pollution-free Earth, to end child labor digging for cobalt & tearing up the landscape, then they would be screaming from the tops of mountains for the people on the planet to develop Zero Point Energy, without governments & corporations interfering.
Nikola Tesla had ZP figured out 100 years ago.
Eric is an Architect, he knows the principle on which it is built.
that’s why he destroyed Courtland~
Thanks, Jack!
Good to have you with us, too!
Let’s build electric cars that nobody wants and crash the antiquated grids by mandatory government decoration to please the greenies.
It was always a rediculous commitment. No one with the need or desire to travel beyond their city can manage on an ev.
Indeed, Brolin –
I tried to tell Mercedes. The thanks I got was that they pulled my press car access.
Maybe they heard you and now are having a hard time saying, “We’re sorry”. that might be too publicly painful at this point in time.
Hi Brolin,
It’s even more absurd for a luxury/high-end marque such as Mercedes. People with money don’t want to wait. One of the reasons affluent people buy first class tickets (and fly private) is so they don’t have to wait. Waiting is for the masses. They wait to get into good restaurants – and to board a flight. The idea that a person who can afford a $70k (and more) Mercedes EV is going to be willing to wait to be able to go where they want to right now is as absurd as expecting people to pay $100 for a McDonald’s hamburger.
$
They are still crazy to think half of their sales will be electric by 2030. Even 25% is nutty.
The reality is: the folks willing to do electric have done it. There are no more left, in fact half are going back to ICE. There are already too many electric models, so they should be discontinuing most of them, not creating more of them.
The automakers are now between a rock and a hard place. They may be transitioning to electric, but unfortunately for them their customers aren’t.
That’s that you get for going from pleasing your customers to filling government regulations. They get no sympathy from me. They have made their bed and they lay in the filth of it.
In the EV dystopia of Norway, more than 90 % (!) of new car sales this year are EVs. This proves that it is possible to make people embrace EVs… if EVs are the only allowed choice. No doubt politicians in other countries are watching and finding inspiration from this insane trend.
Norway is a tiny car market, where many people already didn’t own cars. So they may be watching how it plays out, but yeah, not applicable to really anywhere else.
I’m a RE Broker and a Mortgage Lender. My business has been devastated by the interest rates. 2023 was the worst year for resales since 1998, 25 years. Currently, 2024, is the worst year in 30 years for resales. It’s getting worse. New homes are going up quickly in our area because they have enough profit margin to buy down the rate and offer money back at closing to cover closing costs and then some. Unfortunately, for various reasons, most people are no longer using agents to help them buy a new home. Several major reasons for this are that builders are offering better deals if no agent is used and also, many people of a certain persuasion use their friends and family, who are agents, to rebate all but about $1,000 back at closing to the buyer. These agents provide no service, no knowledge, no help whatsoever, but they get $1,000 for being on the contract and in our area, the buyer then gets sometimes $15-$30k back at closing from this. And as a Lender, I have no chance to earn the new home construction business mortgage since that goes either to the in house lender or the “preferred lender” because the cash back at closing the builder is offering only goes to one of those. If the buyer uses an independent lender, that closing cost money and rate buy down money, which could be up to $25,000 is lost.
Why do I tell you this? Because of this situation, I was driving Uber XL and Uber Comfort earlier this year until my ’16 Navigator L was aged out. I was able to make $4k/mo net if I worked many hours. During one of my trips, I picked up a high level executive from Stellantis and he waxed eloquent about EV’s and the transition. I then told him why as both an agent who has to drive many miles to show properties or as an Uber driver, driving many miles, why EV’s just don’t work. We all know the reasons here, so I won’t go into the myriad of problems associated with EV use. He actually seemed surprised by my knowledgeable answers but it didn’t change his fervor for the EV.
My point is that these executives have been brainwashed by the collective hive that is corporate America. They want to keep their jobs and so they turn their critical thinking off and do what proper drones do, they implement whatever they are told and they do it with the fervor of a devoted communist devoted to the cause, that is until the shock of the moment that the barrel of the gun is pointed at them, at which point it is too late and their last thought is what just happened.
What we need are more Bob Lutz’s, who was my hero growing up. If I had thought their would be a chance for an independent person like myself to have made it at Ford or any other builder, I would have jumped at it. But I saw Lutz as the last of the men who built our industry. He was a man with a mind of his own that didn’t follow the hive and he was passed over, twice for the premier job in his company, once at Chrysler and then GM.
During one of my trips, I picked up a high level executive from Stellantis and he waxed eloquent about EV’s and the transition.
Sounds like this French Leyland executive could use an attitude adjustment.
Huh?
Gig driving…..the problem is you are consuming your car…most people don’t see it or factor it in….they make maybe $100 to $150? per day for Uber eats ….but eventually they are faced with deferred maintenance, big repair bills, if they can do the repairs themselves they can survive longer…if not they might have no cash or credit and be screwed….
aging out…some gigs require a newer vehicle…more expense….
This is why lots of food delivery is going to ebikes, electric scooters…..no gas…. cheaper transportation….
Gig delivery/driving jobs…big corporations screwing desperate, poor people…
This is why people want to work for the government….sit on your ass, do nothing, high pay, huge pension…..total parasite…
I don’t get why people never pencil in those costs of driving for uber. When you add those costs in, it’s not worth it. Uber takes too much on top of it too.
I once figured the costs for a friend who delivered pizza. After we figured it out, he never delivered another one. If a business wants to do deliveries, they should be the ones providing the vehicles, not the employees. It’s never worth it for an individual. (I have noticed the local Dominos are providing the cars now)
Right….New home builders…buy down the rate….
Existing used homeowners, (mortgage brokers, banks), can’t offer that…so can’t sell….there goes the $500,000 profit they imagined they had…trapped….
Ford CEO says a profitable $30,000 EV is coming in two and a half years
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/28/ford-ceo-30000-ev-coming-in-two-and-a-half-years-at-a-profit.html
From link:
Farley said Ford is first focusing on smaller EVs instead of larger all-electric trucks and SUVs, which have historically been gas-powered profit engines for the company, because such vehicles are “never going to make money.”
“You have to make a radical change as an [automaker] to get to a profitable EV. The first thing we have to do is really put all of our capital toward smaller, more affordable EVs,” Farley said during an interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin. “That’s the duty cycle that we’ve now found that really matches. These big, huge, enormous EVs, they’re never going to make money. The battery is $50,000. … The batteries will never be affordable.”
——
Hmmmm… But…
A Ford spokesman later clarified Farley was referring to large vehicles such as the company’s Super Duty models or vehicles that require massive battery packs to achieve significant EV ranges of 500 miles. He was not referring to ones such as Ford’s current all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup or next-generation EVs.
—-
Riiiiiight.
——
We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles. It’s super important for our society and for EV adoption,” Farley said Friday. “We are just in love with these monster vehicles, and I love them too, but it’s a major issue with weight.”
—-
Society and “EV adoption”? I thought it was the cliiiiiimate. Can you smell the diminishment?
“We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles. It’s super important for our society and for EV adoption,” Farley said Friday.
I think a better approach would be for Ford to start thinking positively about the prospect of firing Jim Farley.
They made small GAS powered cars and they didn’t sell because they were too expensive. If a fiesta was 8k, a focus was 11k, they would have sold in huge numbers (they listed for 17-27k). Now they think they will sell small electric cars that do less for over 30k? They are crazy!
Hi Funk,
It’s astounding that Farley – ostensibly someone who ought to understand the car business – would say this. Small cars are too small for most people to be their primary/family car; if the small car is also expensive, it’s ridiculous. What’s needed is a practical, affordable mid-sized car that can serve as a family car – and some very inexpensive (sub $15k) small cars for first-time buyers and young/single people. That would help turn things around.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz? – Janis Joplin
Who in God’s name would abandon the internal combustion engine that can take you places?
I’m going to walk to the gas station with a gas can to keep the car on the road, I’ll be back for some more.
Otherwise, I’ll need a horse and they are hay burners too.
No matter where you go, there you are.
I think someone posted it here a while back, but there’s an article that states somewhere around half of EV buyers regret doing so & will return to ICE vehicles. Reality is a bitch, I reckon.
My juvenile sense of humor always pictures the German greenie weenies as the nihilistic characters from SNL’s “Sprockets”. And after the MB leadership finally came to their senses they said, “und nows the time on shprockets, veee dance”.
Thanks for the reference to Ayn Rand. I think my young adult kids will be able to understand and have better perspective about her books now and will ask them to read them. I think that’s when I read them to, in my 20’s.
My pleasure, Chris!
Rand was a kook in some ways, but brilliant as far as her understanding (and explanation) of them.
After reading about what these psychopaths have been up to for YEARS, along with the tyranny we’ve been forced to endure just over the past 4+ years, it has become obvious to me that these psychopaths are Modern day thieves out to steal, kill, and destroy.
It should also be obvious by now that evil DOES EXIST. However, to hide what they’re REALLY up to, they’ll LIE to people and claim that what they’re doing is a GOOD & BENEFICIAL thing, such as their calls for a “Great Reset” & “Build Back Better”. They’ve also claimed (and continue to claim) that their sinister plans would “Stop climate change”, “Protect public health”, “Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion”, “Promote convenience”, etc. Another tactic they use is accusing others of something that THEY’RE actually guilty of. If there was ever a time to vet what media figures, politicians, powerful people, large corporations, and bureaucrats say, it’s now.
And remember their claim that “You’ll own nothing and be happy”? What’s NOT mentioned is that THEY would own everything, and WE would be slaves to them.
It has also become obvious over the past 3+ years of the Biden regime that the Biden Thing has been doing the bidding not only of these psychopaths, but also Neocons bent on endless war, Big Pharma, the military-industrial complex, and the censorship-industrial complex.
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn’t exist.” -Charles Baudelaire (attributed)
The Fountainhead was the best book she ever wrote, imo. Read most of her works while I was in the Army. She was really good at crafting great female characters with a depth and believability that drove her narratives.
From the interview, “There is no party, There are no voices to offer a pro capitalist, Lazza fare economic freedom and individualism. That is what this country needs today.” There certainly are no voices today that aren’t shadow banned and ratio’d by big tech. After seeing whats become of the Libertarian party I’m more convinced than ever that everything is controlled opposition and the banks own it all.
And Mike Wallachlenski with the ‘Aren’t we all our brothers keepers?’ while trying to be the cool cat with the burning cig, never inhaling. What a Mockingbird POS. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
If they made Rand required reading in schools, within one or two generations we’d have a society we could all abide.
Will the Loper decision bring an end to this centrally planned golf cart nonsense?
I hope.
Amusing that Americans stand up and sing about the “land of the free”, while being anything but.
Like all central planning, this will fail. Question is, what does it look like when that happens?
A good sign. At least one auto maker at least partially exiting the death spiral suicide pact which is EVs.
Nonsense to expect brand new unproven “technology” to equal or better 100+years of refinement, in spite of largely successful regulatory attempts to negate that refinement over the last 20+ years.
In 1940 the US population was about 139 million citizens. I’m using 1940 because it seems like the basics of modern infrastructure was figured out around that time. Highways, power grids, water and sewer systems, telecommunications, and basic urban planning were all conceived of around that time. Even with growth, the rights of way and basic layout of the country hasn’t changed much since then. A testament to just how good modern infrastructure is. Cities grew, but a brand new city hasn’t been carved out of the frontier for a very long time.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1067138/population-united-states-historical/
In 1999 that number doubled to ~278 million. The cities got larger but for the most part, the centers are still where they were in 1940. Out here in the west, where land was cheap, they spread out from the core. In the east they got a lot more dense. But along with more people came reactionary resistance to change, especially if someone was invested in the past, giving rise to the NIMBY liberals. This was manifest in the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in art and pop culture: the return of the western, ragtime and folk songs, and retro fonts for posters and advertising. Politicians capitalized on the movement and took advantage to lock up land and restrict use, freezing cities in time.
A lot of those old hippies are still alive and hold immense power. They got theirs and don’t want anyone taking it away (and they’re going to live forever, but that’s a different issue). Now that the official population is 331 millions, the old paths are pretty well worn. The cities are groaning under the load while being forced to continue with the same right of way, the same untouchable historic district buildings and angry hippie voters. Upgrade instead of rebuild. Better for share- and bond-holders too, since rebuilding costs more.
So what is to be done? Well, elimination of people would be a great solution, except that’s like eating potato chips… once you start you can’t stop. Building out infrastructure to support everyone is hard so that’s pretty much off the table too (and the whole NIMBY historians thing again).
I pay pretty close attention to the Colorado River (I can see it from my window right now). Back when the big dam projects were conceived the area where I’m sitting was probably not even homesteaded, or at least was an open range ranch. There was plenty of water, the river just needed to be tamed. Once that happened people moved out here who would never consider a hardscrabble life that was necessary before the river was tamed and the interstate built. It bought a lot of time and made possible the NIMBY historian. Because if we all had to live in Denver there’s no way those historical buildings could hold us all. But now that we’re spread out, you can’t just concentrate us back into the now land-locked cities without massive infrastructure changes.
Or massive depopulation.
I should point out that back in the 1940s Europe and Japan were in the same boat we’re in now. They got some free urban renewal under the Doolittle plan. I guess that’s an option too. Two birds with one stone. Kind of a blunt solution though, indiscriminately taking out everyone’s favorite hangouts.
What you are describing sounds a lot like California. I lived in the LA area in the late 1990’s until around 2002. I never thought much about the situation back then, but later on it dawned on me big time what was going on. Most of the freeways in and around LA were hopelessly log jammed, even late into the night and on weekends. The area was, to say the least, highly populous. Rent was high (luckily I had a decent job) and I hardly ever saw any new homes or apartment complexes being built.
Contrast that with my home state, Maryland. Yes, we have a lot of those problems here but at least when the freeways get crowded they do eventually work to expand and improve them. Not so with California. They’d repair roads, repave them, but they never did a thing to improve traffic flow or ease congestion. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Beltway has had lanes added to it on and off over the years, as have other really busy roads. Plus, fairly constant home building does take place in the area. It seems that this sort of anti-progress is worse in some places than others, but sadly it does exist.
Maryland, even in the DC metro area, is very rural and even has a fair bit of open space. Most of the land was deeded going back centuries, compared to the American West that was conquered. Instead of being doled out by the king to his favored lackeys and patrons, it was held tightly by the federal government. Land was always scarce.
Artificially low interest rates and massive deficit spending made a lot of the evil in the car industry possible. People actually believed the devices were “affordable” with 2% car loans and tax credits from various levels of government.
2%? That’s the subprime borrower rate. Most people got 0% for 60 months, at least until the FED decided to “play hardball.”
Sell on the monthly payment, not the sticker price. What do he have to do to put you in this car today? Stretch out the payments to 72 or 84 months? Your job’s secure right? And you’ll hardly notice the autopay deduction. At least until you’re reorg’d into a new position with a woke boss and DEI training.
What are you going to do? Quit? Not with a second mortgage and two car payments for the next 7 years. Not to mention your kid’s ‘scrips and ongoing medical issues…
‘to hedge against the suicidally stupid idea of being a seller of nothing but devices’ — eric
But, but, but … ELON!
And even that iconic name misses the mark. Here’s the real nub: world’s richest lifeform.
Among executives who are paid mere millions — about what Elon earns in a single day — Elon’s plutocratic triumph produces both crippling envy and a powerful compulsion to emulate his magical wealth formula.
Elon got rich and famous flogging EeeVees. Why shouldn’t we, goes their logic. Which quickly morphs into: we can; we should; we MUST. EeeVees for all! EeeVees forever!
Politicians — another envious lot who earn mere millions — clap auto honchos on the back (even as they keep a regulatory snub-nose pressed against their kidneys), while the frayed-collar stenographers of the Lügenpresse hail them as visionaries and saviors of the climate.
To his horror, Mercedes Benz CEO Ola Källenius finds himself living a real-life version of the Cinderella fable. He was fetched to the EeeVee Ball by a golden carriage made from a humble pumpkin, pulled by six gray mice transformed into noble steeds. But now midnight has struck. His fine tuxedo has turned to rags, and his golden carriage is merely a pumpkin.
It’s an age-old tale. All that remains is to incorporate EeeVee Fever into the next edition of Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
I don’t want to hear your promises
I know the truth and you’re lying
It’s all over, all over, over but the crying
— The Georgia Satellites, It’s All Over But the Cryin’
Elon is the real life Tony Stark!
I think Elon got most of his money from the “carbon credits” scam, govco forcing automakers to pay Elon for the dreaded CO2 “emissions” from the IC engines they manufactured.
Hi Mike,
If that’s the case, it would certainly explain why Elon Musk supports carbon credits and carbon taxes. He stands to make MONEY off of them. It’s likely the same with those “Nobel Prize winning economists” who support Joe Biden’s economic plans….they’ll be good for them and uber wealthy elitists, but not so good for the middle and lower classes.
Hi John,
Elon is tied with the government and that is clearly visible. He is allowed to do whatever he wants and he will get bailed out by Goverment. Goverment support is difference between him and Elizabeth Holmes. He claims he is libertarian but by that logic Biden and Claus Schwab are libertarian as well.