Volkswagen Is Looking To The Future And Ducati Could Be Affected.

Good point!

Perhaps the batteries will have six year life and the PCP will be for two years? Maybe there will be a service agreement /maintainance option "for only and additional £X per annum" which will gurantee the batteries will always be capable of 80% or replaced?

Though if mass produced at the levels of petrol cars made/sold currently, £36K sales price would have plenty of margin to provide all the above.

 

You’ve got a point but I’m beginning to wonder what the big ‘reset’ is all about. That’s this sore throat going round that’s throwing the world into hysterics.
Maybe a big push to go electric. Everywhere. Dodgy times ahead perhaps.

 

Costs have to come down or wages have to go up, otherwise it can't really happen - or we just work from home and don't need cars.... I see PCP deals going the same way as mobile phones, from 1 year deal to 18 month deal to 2 year deal, 3 year deal all at around £35/month. PCP deals will become about 6 years with bigger balloon payments but still £300/month

 

Sadly it does make sense. VAG have been hit very hard with the fines etc from Diesel Gate. The costs against them are not finished by any means. This has left them short of funds. They've also found the costs of developing and producing competitive cutting edge electric vehicles is higher than anticipated. Consequently they need the cash that selling the three specialist companies would bring.

 

As most cars will still be under manufacurer's warrenty for two years

I guess that would make it very tempting to sell Ducati if they could get a reasonable price. I am guessing (and it is guessing) that someone like Ho**a or BMW might be interested in acquiring Ducati in order to destroy them.

 

Why would they do that?

 

Get rid of competition.

 

Global companies would not buy something of value to destroy it.

 

A 2.0l diesel Passat R-line estate is 37k (after some discount)....how much was you expecting the ID3 to cost?
I paid 30k for my 8 seater Ford Tourneo Custom 4 years ago. (probably the first and last brand new vehicle I bought with cash)

 

16k?, said Mr Uninformed

 

Nahhhhh. Maybe that was a bit flippant!

 

At times when a red bike with 4cylinders & 2 wheels costs 24k
Mad times..mad prices.

 

Whilst I agree that the Visordown article is based on exactly zero insight plus lots of hot air, I think the issue at the moment is battery technology. Elon Musk recently announced that he is about 3 years away from incorporating his next generation of battery in commercially available cars that will provide much better range with fewer batteries (which also unlocks lower cost electric vehicles). My hope is that this would unlock the economics and practicality of making exciting electric bikes.

The Visordown assertion that Ducati's brand is built on heritage and so electric is out, is just ridiculous. Had they looked at Porsche, they'd see that VW group has a tonne of insight and experience of both electrification of high performance vehicles, AND doing it with petrol-based, so-called heritage brands.

Personally, I think that petrol-power is going to disappear a lot faster than most people currently think. I have no doubt it's possible to make beautiful and fast electric motorcycles. They may not make the same noise, but with time engineers and designers will find ways to make the user experience exciting and intoxicating, in new ways.

 

was that with installation?

IME it costs 2500-4000 to replace a boiler with any boiler.

 

Not at that level. And they couldn't, there are laws against it. It not like Facebook buying a small company selling some software that could replace FB then shutting it down. Sorry, I meant absorbing the business for synergy reasons

 

New petrol-powered cars will no longer be the norm in 10 years time. Manufacturers are not investing all the cash in electric vehicles for no return.
I would also make a guess that the petrol/diesel car as a commuter vehicle into towns and cities will also no longer viable or acceptable.

 

Most of Musk's empire is built on govt funding, and he still can't make them commercially viable. And tbh if he said it was daytime, I'd assume it was really night time

The costs will come down, they always do, as does corner cutting and cheaper materials. Not sure how you get the core battery materials cheaper tho, or indeed how it can be 'foxed' to not use mined materials, which makes the whole industry a mockery imho. Stop one mine to make another.

 

Tesla has started turning a profit if I'm not mistaken. And I doubt you'll find any car manufacturer that doesn't get subsidies for their manufacturing plants. What I find incredible about what Musk has done, is that he started his business with private investment from scratch. And now SpaceX is teaming up with NASA, now that his reusable rockets have stopped crash-landing.

If we're honest, most big business is built on government funding whether direct or indirect. All research that leads to innovation comes from the education sector, to start with (or often defence...). Even schools prepare the labour force that employers depend on, so the funding argument is not one that I buy as unique to battery production. And don't get me started on the issue of big business not paying taxes... or bailouts for billionaires like Branson that have islands to provide as collateral...

I do agree on the environmental and human exploitation problems of battery raw materials. Though again, you could point that finger at practically any industry. The "problem" is one of governance, accountability and ethical business practice. As long as profit is the only measure of success for investors and stakeholders, there are no solutions. Recycling is a classic example: companies are all touting their green recycling credentials, and yet most UK recycling waste is shipped off to Asia and ends up in landfill over there... go figure.

With battery power - like wind power generation - there are pros and cons. Whilst raw materials are problematic to say the least, the benefit to global warming and air quality (and reduction in death rates and health costs) are a 'good' thing. But how do you balance such equations? I've no idea BTW...

 

VW set the record at Pikes Peak with an electric car. They will take it from racing to street someday and then to motorcycles.

 

One of Honda's reasons for pulling the plug on F1 is that they could not reconcile spending money on petrol powered car racing when they are investing in electric technology.

https://www.ft.com/content/ba229a8b-082b-41a7-84ff-25bd556f598a