Thank you! Do you think Tesla will do good in Germany?
German car manufacturers pride themselves in building some of the best cars in the upper middle class (BMW 5 Series, 6 Series, Audi A4, A6, and more recently A5 and A6, Mercedes E class). Many of these cars are bought by companies for emplyee use. These companies buy huge quantities and get good deals from the manufacturers.
Last year 61.8 % of the newly registered cars were registered by a company, that is 1.9 million vehicles.
Deutschlands beliebteste Geschäftswagen 2013: DMM Der Mobilitätsmanager: Mehr Effizienz bei Geschäftsreise, Firmenwagen, Veranstaltung
The article says, that more than 80 % of all new 5, 6, 7, A6, A8, S-class, Panamera und so on, are registered by companies, almost none by individual owners.
Individuals buy these cars after they have been used for 6 months to 3 years for a steep discount.
So I believe that Tesla would need to cater to these markets in order to succeed big in Germany. Strike deals with some big companies (Siemens, Deutsche Bank ... come to mind) to include them in their fleet car offer to their employees.
Because of the tax rules here, an electronic driver's logbook would be a big plus for Tesla. It should be fairly straightforward to implement, all the data is there already. Just remind the driver when starting the car to enter which one of the three kinds of trips is he about to undertake:
a) private
b) commute to or from work
c) business (here additional information needs to be prompted from the user)
This is especially important because otherwise private use of the car would be taxed at 1 % of the list price of the car per month (there is a small deduction for the price of the battery, but it maxes out at 100 Euro). And our Model S has a high list price, but relatively little cost after that (fuel, tax, repair etc).
The other question will be range anxiety on long trips along the Autobahn.
I've had my S now for 10 days, gone 1.500 km. So far I have not had a chance to go faster than 160 km/h and only for under one minute. Traffic if just too heavy most of the time. My average is under 200 Wh/km, so my range should be better that 400 km. If I understand the SC map for 2014, then travel along the Autobahns should be no problem whatsoever, even travelling at typical Autobahn speeds (130 -160 km/h).
So yes, I think Tesla can become successful in Germany.
Don't underestimate the pride of German engineers and the public in the German auto industry. It is a big part of the German economy. What will the tens of thousands of ICE engineers do? Will they be retrained to design electric drivetrains? Are they becoming obsolete?
Politics (mrs. Merkel) said she would like to see 1 million electric cars on the road. So far nothing has been done towards this goal. No incentives (really, ok no auto tax for 10 years, but that is only a few 100 Euros). No wonder. The German auto industry is ignoring BEV best as they can. Audi developed electric cars and then stopped the program when done. (At least they fired the responsible manager).
