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by Kirby64 1241 days ago
Really seems like perverse incentives to me... EA was created due to the VW scandal, and they were forced to spend this money this way.

Except, VW's bread and butter is still gas cars. They're not incentivized to herald EVs at all; if anything, they'd prefer it to go as slowly as possible so they can continue to make money off their gas fleet.
3 comments
barbazoo 1241 days ago
Right now, sure but doesn't seem to be their strategy long term. Why would they purposefully sabotage that as you're suggesting?

https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com/en/strategy-3912

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mrguyorama 1240 days ago
Whether it's purposeful or not doesn't matter. Right now Electrify America gives EV charging a bad rap. Tesla shows large scale charging networks are economically viable, and really Tesla should be pushing their network open ASAP, as you can sell fast charging at a serious premium and it would literally be free money for a network that currently is underutilized.
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bhauer 1240 days ago
If I were a company still on the low side of EV volume (GM, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, etc.), I would be seriously in negotiations with Tesla to adopt NACS and join the Supercharger network, allowing our customers to avoid the debacle of CCS.

I consider any manufacturer that isn't making moves in that direction to be demonstrating an unserious attitude toward EVs. CCS is a total shambles in the United States and its headwind should cast doubt on any advertised optimism from manufacturers using CCS.

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matthewdgreen 1240 days ago
Musk promised that the Tesla network would be open to other manufacturers by the end of 2022. Nobody really knows what's going on now, and I sure hope that the late-2022 decision to open-source the NACS standard isn't what's holding progress up. Only one of these two standards is going to win: the faster we pick one the quicker we can make progress.

In this case while I prefer NACS myself, I'm worried that convincing a dozen manufacturers to switch standards is going to take much longer than just adding a second CCS connector to (many) Superchargers. Otherwise we could lose years to this, and still wind up with CCS everywhere.

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cptcobalt 1241 days ago
Exactly this.
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foepys 1241 days ago
VW has repeatedly stated that they aim to stop producing ICEs by 2035.

This is very likely to happen considering that the EU wants to ban registrations of ICE powered cars in the same year.

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bhauer 1240 days ago
That is twelve years from now. Even assuming they stick to that plan, which I feel is a naive assumption considering how often they've failed to meet EV plans previously, they can easily continue poisoning the EV waters today and for several years to come.
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foepys 1240 days ago
VW has made multi billion Euro (~20 billion until 2027) investments into EV, from a completely new vehicle platform to investing hundreds of millions into battery tech startups. There was even serious talk about buying a cobalt mine which was abandoned when battery tech got rid of cobalt.

Why would they do that if they want to sabotage it? It doesn't make any sense to that to throw it all away later on purpose.

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