In a shocking turn of events that nobody could have seen coming, the Volkswagen ID.3’s Europe-only launch will be delayed:
The compact car has been in production since the beginning of November , but according to a media report, the developers are still struggling “with massive software problems”.
Ecomento.de
So… they’re already making the cars but the software just doesn’t work yet?
That sounds very cost effective. Many of these cars will be sitting around for a year before a customer finally drives it home.
According to information from Manager Magazin , the ID.3 will be built for months without a complete software architecture. The wagons would then be parked in specially rented parking lots, according to company circles. In spring, service teams with mobile computer stations should install new software for the first 10,000 ID.3.
A second wave is planned for mid-May, a total of more than 20,000 ID.3 should be reworked, according to Manager Magazin . Only then can the new electric car be installed with the latest software via “over-the-air” updates, as has been the case for a long time with US industry leader Tesla.
Ecomento.de
Between mid December and mid May, Volkswagen will manually update the software of 20,000 vehicles it has already produced. You’d think they would have gotten the over the air update functionality working first but… German engineering?
In addition to MEB , Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess also wants to sell the new software architecture developed for the upcoming electric cars to competitors, according to the report in Manager Magazin
Ecomento.de
“Hey Auto industry, did you hear about our massive software problems? For a very reasonable price, they can be your massive problems too!” –– Volkswagen
Shocker: Volkswagen ID.3 delayed after “massive software problems”. 20,000 already produced cars will have to be software updated manually over the next 6 months before delivery.
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Lol. In 2017-2018 insane Tesla shorts were claiming that Model 3s were being stockpiled in parking lots because of no demand it that they didn’t really work or something like that.
Au contraire.
Sweet Potemkin parking lot, VW!
Complete Cluster F.
In 2010, I interviewed for an analyst position at the North American VW headquarters in Northern Virginia.
I asked my interviewers what they thought about Tesla and it’s potential to change the industry and what, if any, plans VW had for EVs.
They giggled.
33k. whats the point of buying this over the model 3? specs suck. is it to save 6k?
It’s ~30,000 Euro vs. ~44,000 Euro. Quite the difference.
And the specs aren’t bad, at least on paper. Not quite the same — but again, huge price difference. Add taxes, insurance etc… There are reasons why budget compact hatchbacks sell many times more in Europe than premium mid-sized sedans.
european gigafactory will get the price down
No doubt about European factory lowering the costs (less tariffs, lower transport cost) — but that’s still a while off. And even then, they surely won’t be in the same price range. Again, it’s quite a different class… While one could argue that Tesla offers much more for the money, it doesn’t change the fact that many people will prefer the vehicle that’s significantly cheaper (on purchase price and TCO) in absolute terms.
Unless and until Tesla creates a smaller/cheaper model (Elon has been flip-flopping on that), it doesn’t really compete with the Id.3 directly.
No doubt, there’s a lot of room for electric vehicles down market from the Model 3.