Y2Kyoto: Schadenfrozen

VW warns soaring EU energy costs render battery plants unviable;

Investment in German and EU industrial projects such as battery-cell factories will be unfeasible if the region’s policy makers fail to control ballooning energy prices in the long-term, the head of Volkswagen Group’s namesake brand, Thomas Schäfer, said.

“Unless we manage to reduce energy prices in Germany and Europe quickly and reliably, investments in energy-intensive production or new battery cell factories in Germany and the EU will be practically unviable,” VW Schaefer wrote Monday on LinkedIn.

“The value creation in this area will take place elsewhere.”

VW plans to have six battery factories in full operation across Europe by 2030 under its battery company PowerCo, which broke ground on its lead plant in Germany in July of this year and signed a 3 billion euro ($3.1 billion) joint venture with Umicore in September for cathode material production.

An outline for industrial-policy cooperation hatched by the French and German economy ministers last week “falls short in crucial areas and does not address the envisaged priorities,” Schaefer said.

26 Replies to “Y2Kyoto: Schadenfrozen”

  1. The solution for Volkswagen is simple: build lots of their own windmills and install lots of their own solar panels.

    The gang greens keep telling us that wind and solar are the lowest cost energy sources. So time to put it into practice.

    And as back up you can have Volks macht: people peddling stationary bicycles hooked up to generators

    1. Joe..

      Anyone driving an EV should be mandated to acquire any and all power required from Wind & Solar….no.?

      1. Steakman, who’d a thunk it, ya actually need coal, oil, and gas energy to make batteries. Wow, what a revelation. Oh, the same things are needed to build solar panels and wind turbines.

  2. No.
    Can’t be.

    I’m told electric vehicles are so virtuous that no energy or materials are required to build or operate them. They are gifts to humanity from Greta and the Green Gods of Climate Justice.

    1. They’re not only virtuous, they are also virtual. Virtual as in imaginary.

      Vehicular options in Woketopia start with donkey carts and buggy whips, and end with shoe leather.

  3. Once again, liberals have made long term plans based on emotions and wishfulthinking. Result: logic and the real world slap them in the face, usually after they waste billions.
    Color me shocked.

    1. Ignorance is not an emotion. It’s a disability, and in the case of liberals, it is compounded with mental illness.

  4. Ask Fritz if they’re still on board with shutting down their nuclear plants at the end of the year.
    Fun fact: Energiewende is German for “National Suicide”. Totally in keeping with their nihilistic nature.

  5. With energy prices as elevated as they are in Europe, manufacturers of industrial goods will not be competitive with the rest of the world in manufacturing anything. Batteries are just a very small segment of the business that is at risk.

    Steel, aluminum and cement manufacture are all extremely energy intensive processes. Extrapolate outward from there.

    Talk amongst yourselves.

  6. The geniuses that drive our policies are taking us down a road that goes nowhere, and they are to busy looking in the vanity mirror to notice where it’s taking us!

  7. Does anyone else wonder how much money the Chinese government gives to ecotards to make sure crap like this is guaranteed to happen? Probably even more than the Russians.

  8. Has ruining their own economy with stupid energy policies to fight climate change made Germany poor enough to qualify for climate change reparations?

  9. All the engineers in North America can cry into their IPA’s when BMWs are no longer available.

    1. Yes, that exact thought occurred to me a couple of weeks ago. And sadly, their fine German automobile will necessarily be violated by repair with crap parts from China.

  10. Someone once said “If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics, I give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.”

    Gang Green’s political plans are all against the second law, and we get to experience the collapse and humiliation

  11. I recently watched a video that said that Germany is undergoing the fastest deindustrialization in history. Great precautionary model for the folly of green energy policies and dependence on foreign governments for energy security. Never follow in Germany’s footsteps is a pretty safe general rule.

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