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A comment on Mercedes kills their only electric car. Parent comment

Re:Mercedes kills their only electric car by _ph_ on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @05:05AM (#14898886)
The German carmakers have great production facilities, technical abilities and deep pockets. Unfortunately, their mind set has been focussed on selling their dirty Diesel cars at all means. So I am doubtful to their current commitment to electrical cars, but who knows. Also, I don't see them build up battery capacities on the scale Tesla does. So, I really wish that they give Tesla a great competition, but so far I am not too optimistic.
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Re:Mercedes kills their only electric car by c3833174 on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @09:26AM (#14900368)
>their mind set has been focussed on selling their dirty Diesel cars at all means

Or maybe it's because that's what people buy, since diesel is cheaper than the upfront cost of an electric car.

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Re:Mercedes kills their only electric car by _ph_ on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @10:21AM (#14900876)
Yes, they are cheap to buy, because they don't have a working exhaust cleaning and don't comply to the emission laws.

I think it is a big fallacy to claim that Diesel cars are so popular, if you consider how the public has been mislead about the illegal levels of pollution produced by the cars and that they have been sold without a working exhaust cleaning. Besides that affordable electric cars are a very recent thing, are Diesel engine cars going to be popular, if they are more expensive to buy (1-2k) and operate (regular AdBlue refill)?

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Re:Mercedes kills their only electric car by c3833174 on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @11:06AM (#14901410)
>Besides that affordable electric cars are a very recent thing

They might not have been practical, but affordable lead-acid based EVs already existed during the rise of small diesel.

>more expensive to buy (1-2k) and operate (regular AdBlue refill)?

Adblue is pretty cheap and isn't going to be used up that fast, most people are more concerned about the filter blocking up because of short commutes not leaving enough time for it to fully warmup.

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Re:Mercedes kills their only electric car by holydude on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @06:13AM (#14899206)
Well that's the thing they do not really have deep pockets or technical abilities. Building a platform, an electric future generation car is way different than building a car with classic engine.
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Re:Mercedes kills their only electric car by struppi on Tuesday August 01, 2017 @06:35AM (#14899301)
And if you believe Elon Musk's own words, it's significantly easier ;)

Joking aside - Yes, German car makers are behind on electric vehicles, but all (except mercedes now) have one. They are late, they probably are at a disadvantage, but IMHO the game is not over yet.

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