Audi to Stop Developing ICE Vehicles

sockmeister

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SteelMach

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Depends on how you look at it.

It's definitely a "big" announcement, but it's an inevitable one. We'll see the rest of the dominoes fall over the decade ahead. Anyone developing a from-scratch engine today is never going to see a return on their investment, most companies see that writing on the wall now, finally.
 


malba2366

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Mercedes Benz also said this generation of gasoline engines is the last they will develop. They will still build gasoline cars for 20 years or so with the existing engines.
 

Njia

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It used to be that companies were in business to "make money." Then, tech companies showed the world that "shareholder value" and "profitability" could be mutually exclusive.
 

kikibop

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The transition is under way. The tech and infrastructure is far from finished but the financials, environmental impacts, customer experience, and production scalability of skateboard chassis + BEV drivetrains are so much better for auto production and ownership, there is no other way for mass market automakers. Is inevitable that they’ll all make this leap at some point.
 

sockmeister

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It's part fad, but also mostly driven by both investment for the future, and by increasingly stringent regulations.

So there's the "adapt ahead of time and catch the wave, or be left behind and swallowed up". Everyone can see it coming at this point.

Also, in the article, the CEO basically admits they have no choice with the advancing European emissions regulations.

It's the right decision in the end for all manufacturers at this point.
 

sockmeister

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It's not as far away as you might think. Battery energy density has tripled since 2010. It's on the same curve as things like Moore's Law.
In the past decade there have been significant gains that now make the technology feasible for mass EV adoption. The time is now, and the tech will only improve with time. Just like cellphone technology, for instance.

Here's a chart from The Economist showing how both manufacturing capacity and energy density have increased over the past decade or so, and how prices per kWh have come down.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Audi to Stop Developing ICE Vehicles 20170819_WOC913
 

woody

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Of course. Let's let the Coal Oil Gas and Utilities (COGU) continue to have their way. Renewable energy is just a joke. Fossil fuels will last forever. Scientific knowledge is a bunch of bunk.
After all, the Earth is only ~6,000 years old (those fossil fuels appeared by magic).
And evolution (Darwin had to wait 20 years, even in the 19th Century) is a hoax, not accepted scientific knowledge.
Make the bastards grovel and recant. If they do not, kill them.
Amazing how far reaching COGU along with their fellow "religion" gangsters can be, even in the 21st Century.
Let's not learn from history, let's deny it, take it out of context, rewrite it to be self serving. Fahrenheit 451.
First and most important lesson in statistics is YOU CAN MANIPULATE THE EVIDENCE to tell/promote your story, Glory.
 
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kikibop

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In general price vs performance is the simple expression of this challenge and you’re right that as long as the trade off is too expensive and too heavy we’ll never see mass adoption. But your belief that the past 100 years leads us to today and no further seems pessimistic. Elon Musk is promising a $25k car within a few years and VW is leading the charge in making these cars affordable. With trillions in revenue on the line, I’m betting we’ll be seeing rapid improvement in every aspect over the coming few years.
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