If Germany is not to stifle its own largest industry, the country must stop building gasoline cars right now, says economist.
If Germany is to save its largest industry and the jobs it has, it needs to stop the production of gasoline cars, according to Swedish economist Claes Hemberg.
– If you are behind, you have to catch up, but then you can't keep building gasoline cars, the economist tells Carup.
In fact, Claes Hemberg believes that the Germans are hopelessly far behind the curve. He points out in particular that Volkswagen will only be ready with a cheap electric car in two years. Read more about it here .
The economist has no doubt that the Germans are several years behind their most important competitors – namely the Chinese.
Here, Claes Hemberg points out that no driver today wants to have what he calls yesterday's cars. Not only are the Germans behind when it comes to electric cars, but according to the economist, they also can't figure it out with software.
Furthermore, according to the economist, the Germans have no subcontractors who can deliver the goods at a reasonable pace and in a quality that drivers are satisfied with.
In fact, Claes Hemberg is not even finished tearing the German car industry in half. He believes it is as outdated as a dinosaur that refuses to keep up with the times. He calls the whole of Germany a technical museum.
And it's not just the cars that are wrong. The economist is also upset that it is difficult to book a hotel online and that Germans still use fax machines.
– This weekend there are elections in Germany, and we hope that the politicians will come up with new ideas. But unfortunately there are a lot of right-wing extremist forces who want to continue using fossil fuels, says the economist.
The German right-wing party AfD ended up being the big winner of the election as the next largest party in the upcoming legislative assembly.
But the economist is now wrong that the Germans are not investing in technology. Because while Volkswagen's own software development called Cariad has been an economic disaster, the management in Wolfsburg is already throwing just as much money at Rivian to develop new software.
The Americans will also develop the upcoming Golf 9. A car that can only run on electricity. However, this also means that the current Golf 8 will have a longer life than planned.
