IAA 2023: The German Unexpectancy

The International Motor Show IAA in Munich is coming up this week and what can we expect? I dare to predict something, because somehow it is predictable.

China

First of all, Chinese manufacturers, such as Nio, Voyah or BYD, will present their latest electric cars for the European car market, because they want to make a big splash on the German market this year and next, and with fighting prices. But local journalists and visitors will probably smile mildly at them. Digital is all well and good, they’ll say, but gap sizes! We are used to better things.

Instead, many are waiting for the domestic manufacturers and what they will present.

Mini

Mini is likely to show a new electric core model again, with 218 hp and maximum kWh batteries for a maximum range of 400 kilometers. The same model will also come as a gasoline-powered model. The Mini Countryman will even come as a diesel. In 2023. And that brings us to the parent company, BMW.

BMW

BMW is also introducing a new model range alongside its stunners, teased as the “New Class” (really, that’s the name). This is a revival of a model line that ran from 1962 to 1972. With the slogan BMW Vision Neue Klasse: Experience the future now, the Munich-based company is setting the mood.

Somehow, they’re digging into the past for ideas for the future, and out come only old hats again. And BMW CEO Oliver Zipse doesn’t help the impression at all by spouting long-refuted platitudes about electric mobility. Thus he says in an interview with the German Handelsblatt:

I think that the political requirement to phase out the internal combustion engine is negligent.
Oliver Zipse – Interview with Handelsblatt

For the mass construction of electric cars lacks raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and rare earths, says Zipse, and Europe thus becomes dependent on imports and politically blackmailable. Der Spiegel soberly countered this statement with

At present, however, the EU is heavily dependent on crude oil imports for cars with internal combustion engines – in many cases, the oil also comes from autocratically ruled countries such as Kazakhstan, and by 2022 even to a large extent from Russia.

But that’s not the end of the story, Zipse adds:

And where do people charge all those e-cars? There will be no comprehensive infrastructure for electric cars in Europe in 2035. Do you think that in twelve years there will be charging stations in every village in regions like southern Italy?

There are currently 85,000 charging stations in Europe and electric car users immediately posted pictures of charging stations or 220V power outlets in the mountains across Europe. So much for BMW wanting to get a little pregnant, but not quite, and sounding, like they figured out the problems with charging and thus giving up on it, instead of solving the problems piece by piece. You know, like real engineers tend to do.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen, whose ID series is proving to be a slow seller, whose CARIAD operating system doesn’t want to work, whose market shares in China have plummeted dramatically, and where the workforce seems to be primarily concerned about the currywurst in the factory canteens, also has little to offer.

Stop! Wait! Volkswagen is launching a new Volkswagen Passat station wagon. Electric, surely? Just kidding! Who would come up with such a stupid idea? With a gasoline engine, of course, and as a – hold on and swallow your coffee quickly before spitting it out horizontally – diesel(!) Not just as a diesel, but as a TDI. Wasn’t there something at Volkswagen with diesel?

Mercedes

Mercedes wants to present a few more electric car models, especially showing again the Vision EQXX concept car. The presentation of an electric prototype, the CLA, is also planned, whose consumption is to correspond to the mystical one-liter car. Namely, with 12 kWh per 100 kilometers and 750 km range, an improvement of about 30 percent on the 17 to 18 kWh per 100 km that an EQA 350 compact SUV model needs today. According to the IAA website, Mercedes is showing several other concept vehicles at once.

I hope they include real vehicles that people can buy and, above all, want to buy. Because vision vehicles are all well and good, but are they finally building something new for the future? Maybe even software that shows the future, and not just a lame Intelligent Park Pilot?

Tesla

With this performance, Tesla doesn’t even have to try. With the Model Y as the best-selling car in Europe and a run in 2023 that will see them overtake Mercedes in production figures for the first time, a model overhaul with the Model 3 “Highland” will suffice.

With significantly more range up to 554 kilometers, smoother ride, better aerodynamics and noise, as well as screen also for the passengers in the back seat, and many other small changes, the Model 3 gets more out of itself at the same price. And that first in Europe.

Will I be at the IAA 2023? No, because CES in Las Vegas is the more important mobility show and as far as the future of the automotive industry is concerned – as long as you don’t walk past the booths of the traditional manufacturers. Because where electric cars are already a matter of fact, the focus is now on autonomous cars. But there will be nothing of this at the IAA 2023.

This article was also published in German.

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