Good HEADLINE mate,

Lets put this sort of stupidity into context.

1) April 2009: The biggest recession in 4 decades in underway, credit is almost non-existent car dealers are closing by the dozen and oil is $50 a barrel.

2) April 2008: Oil hits $100 a barrel for the 1st time in history, banks will lend to anyone on social security and Hybrids have a 6 month waiting list.

There's your 'common sense'

F*ck me the FIA are pathetic!

It's race 1 and they're already manipulating podium positions post race like the megalomaniacs they are.... It's enough to stop people watching the sport!!

Why don't the FIA just decide the grid and podium as a popularity contest... ?? What a f*cking joke!

Do you think these EU auto CEOs are a bit full of themselves and a bit biased? Why 2 or 3 survivors in EU but only 1 in the US/Japan/China? The EU and US markets are approx the same size and us/jp/cn combined are 5x the size of EU. The Japs are MUCH better at export than Germans, what does he think his advantage is? According to this guy the rest of the world are crap at making tin boxes with ICEs in them and only the Germans REALLY know how to over-charge for a brand name! Their advantage is having the balls to ask 3 to 4 times as much for a low spec car and then total extortion for spare parts. BMW/Merc charge $5,000 for things like ignition coils.

Who invents these imaginary stories, CNN? Unless all 14 million supposedly scrapped cars are all in write-off accidents then there is absolutley no reason why they would be pulled off the road. Cars are only scrapped when no-one wants them, not because they don't drive anymore - they can always be repaired. There is no 'use by' date on a car.

With less new car sales coming in to replace older cars, unless 4 million drivers can suddenly 100% live without their cars, they will just keep driving what they've got.

Come on, you guys should know that even if the bodyshell is a write-off it can be repaired. This might in fact be good news for the auto repair industry who have been slowly going out of business as ever more and more new cars were being sold. And manufacturers, who already have a total scam going with spare parts prices, stand to benefit too.

LOL this guy proves you don't have to be all that smart to get the top job, just tell the board what they want to hear.

1) Like we're all going to wake up one morning and find 50 Million EVs on the road, that's such an idiotic statement. There weren’t any petrol stations when ICEs started mass production either.

2) All these idiots quoting battery prices... EV sized Li-ion batts aren't even in mass production yet.

3) "Electric motors aren't highly developed"?? LOL there's a sh*t load more electric motors in the world than there are ICEs and they've been around just as long...

This bloke should just refuse to give interviews and save himself and VW the embarrassment.

Notice there's no break down of WHICH hybrids aren't selling. I'd take a wild stab in the dark and say they would mostly be to BS mild hybrids that US companies poored out trying and keep SUV sales happening. There's absolutlye NO WAY there are 500,000 Prius sitting in lots. Lets be realistic, how many other genuine hybrids are there on the market? A large starter motor and a large lead acid battery does not make a hybrid.

Just another case of the big 3 making crap no one wants by the gross!

@hwaarl
Derr.. lets use the German Autobahn as exhibit A in any discussuion about road legal speeds. That about a lame as saying all electricity is generated with coal. LOL Anywhere else in the world that'll get you arrested for dangerous driving and in my locale they'll impound your car for much less.
@JSH
I've seen a retail price of US$1.30 per amp hour for lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries which works out at about US$7800 for 25.5 kw/hr. The 52kw/hr pack in the Tesla costs around $20k. Either way they still they run forklift DC technology which still use brushes and doesn't have regen.

"DUDE wheer are you getting this 'inertia' thing from? The article doesn't even mention it..."

You have no idea pal!

Read the text: "After a dyno pull, instead of ceasing to record data, the machine records the slow-down period, and measures the drag due to the car's powertrain, including engine, transmission and wheels"

Did you comprehend any of that? That "drag" is is the SUBJECT the article is about and that actually refers to measuring drive train "inertia".

You should probably have a quick recap of some basic high school science and learn how to spell.

On what planet is a 125mph top speed 'stunted'? What's the average legal speed limit again. 70mph?

Aside from that some fact checking might be in order here, they want to charge Tesla like prices for these EV Porsche things but they run low tech DC and Lead Acid batteries so will never compete with Tesla in any way. You said it, 50 mile range Vs 240 mile range, no contest.

Transmission 'inertia' has nothing to do with transmission inefficiency. Inertia is only relavant on an inetial dyno as opposed to a real dyno that measure steady state torque output. An inertial dyno can only calculate power by timing how long it takes to accelerate a 'known' mass, usually an acuratley calibrated flywheel. This is a peak power test and has nothing to do with constant torque output (ie horsepower is usually only ever 'calculated' by torque x rpm / 5252 = HP)

The largest factor of mechanical transmission loss is gear inefficiency. Every type of gear is rated at a % loss at the teeth face of between 10-30%. These losses are an engineering fact. Each gear in the transmission between the flywheel and the tires that power has to transmit through ad up to a total loss of closer to 30-40%.