Why we write about this topic:
If you’re on social media these days, you’re probably just wondering about the state of mind of Germans, which is almost embarrassing.
Energy prices are exploding, bankruptcies are on the rise, companies are stopping production because energy prices continue to rise and it makes no sense to produce below cost price. Even traditional companies like the toilet paper manufacturer Hakle are in dire straits.
German politicians
German politicians talk until they’re blue in the face on TV, thereby proving that they are actually completely clueless, and the “Bullerby faction” of journalists (the Bullerby Syndrome is named after Astrid Lindgren’s series, The Six Bullerby Children books, synonymous with a naïve denial of reality) and ideologically charged economists even defend these politicians even if they are full of nonsense.
Cheap nuclear power plants are being shut down, coal-powered power plants are being fired up and the results of the “energy stress test” are simply ignored or interpreted ideologically. And CO2 emissions? These are only mentioned marginally in the German media landscape.
Electricity problem? What electricity problem?
The energy professionals around Germany are shaking their heads and calling for more solidarity. Norway and Sweden are already considering whether they should help out with electricity supplies in the winter, while the Germans are apparently trampling on the European energy alliance by, for example, wanting to shut down the last nuclear power plants or send them into expensive standby mode. If you’ll pardon the drastic words, this is a level of brainlessness that can’t be topped. We keep nuclear power plants in “reserve”, pay the maintenance costs, but don’t let them generate electricity in standby mode so that they earn money and help stabilize the grid. This is German “energy solidarity.”
It’s always the other guy’s fault
And the French are struggling with their nuclear power plants. This is where the German energy path shows itself most bizarrely. On the one hand, there is gloating about the shutdown of nuclear power plants due to maintenance or drought, and on the other hand, there is concern about whether France will be able to help out the Germans with nuclear power in the winter when it is almost certain that things will be tight.
And amidst all this bad news and strange, quintessentially German occurrences, the Federal Motor Transport Authority announces new records in car sales and electromobility.
Good thing electric cars don’t run on gas
For example, EV registrations in the month of August increased by a staggering 10.9 percent to 32,006 units compared to the same month last year. This is indeed astonishing, given that money is no longer so easy to come by due to the energy crisis and inflation, and Germans prefer to buy their bread at discount stores rather than at bakeries, which are therefore heading for insolvency.
So the market share of electric cars was 16.1 percent of sales in August, and the trend is still upward? That would indeed be crystal ball reading.
How do you explain the discrepancy between the economic downturn, social uncertainties and registration records? Because the total number of registered passenger cars also rose by three percent compared with the previous year. Gas-guzzling SUVs continue to be the absolute hit, with growth of 24.8 percent (!), even though a liter of diesel now costs more than the most expensive designer super gasoline.
Apparently, the Germans’ pent-up demand for passenger cars is so great that they want to invest again just before the “catastrophe.”
Of course, this is all baloney.
Due to the raw material, supply and chip crises, many vehicles have not (yet) been delivered. Most of them were ordered at a time when everything was still normal in Europe. Reneging on purchase contracts is hardly a problem for the OEMs because the waiting lists are long and they don’t get commissions anyway. A buyer’s market has become a seller’s market.
The growth in electric vehicles is also directly linked to supply, which has improved considerably. And last but not least, subsidy plans for 2023 and 2024 ensure that the EV boom will continue this year – but only for those with the wherewithal.
The winter will show how clever this is. Because if blackouts really do hit German society, electromobility could also prove to be less resilient. Especially if the power from the socket simply fails to materialize.
