Best of luck to them, they're gonna need it.

What would it even take to change your mind lmao

Healthy numbers. If people aren’t buying VW vehicles because the prices are higher than Hyundai due to the energy situation, that’s not good.

Germany is deindustrializing as we speak (chemicals, auto and auto related, etc). Once you deindustrialize past a certain threshold, it’s very difficult to come back.

VW just claimed the top spot from Tesla for electric car sales in Germany:

https://www.dw.com/en/vw-electric-cars-tesla-germany/a-66468...

https://insideevs.com/news/681020/volkswagen-outsells-tesla-...

Hyundai is currently at sixth place behind VW, Tesla, MB, BMW and Audi:

https://insideevs.com/news/677504/germany-allelectric-car-sa...

In 2022 Tesla was at the top, VW second and Hyundai third, so Hyunday actually seems to be losing ground against other German car brands, at least in the EV market segment:

https://www.best-selling-cars.com/electric/2022-full-year-ge...

I think the announcement of the 'deindustrialization' of Germany might be a bit premature.

Those are domestic numbers, I'm talking about the competitiveness of Germany on the _international_ market - that's what matters. It's hard to be competitive when your energy costs are high.

Regarding deindustrialization:

- https://www.economist.com/business/2022/09/11/germany-faces-...

- https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/01/06/transit...

- https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-industry-europe-ener...

- https://www.politico.eu/article/rust-belt-on-the-rhine-the-d...

- https://unherd.com/thepost/recession-in-germany-is-a-sign-of...

A lot of those articles talk about Russian gas - a perfect reason to go for renewables harder and spend more - it's an investment in the future.