volkswagen

we're seeing the destructive effects of corporate socialism, in my opinion. the european union's transition to electric wasn't just for the sake of being hippies; the goal was to phase out a problematic energy source that isn't its own and switch to clean energy that can be produced locally. but with everyone saying it's important for the economy, important for politics, vw and other firms were shielded from every kind of hardship, and they went on finding their way in an artificially created market where fierce competition had been eliminated. the electric cars they made just because the eu was pushing them, they made deliberately ugly and weird, because they were losing money on each vehicle they sold. even dieselgate couldn't manage to shake them.

but what happened in the end? just like europe, china too was forced to confront a problematic energy source that wasn't its own, but they didn't have internal combustion car companies they felt they had to protect, and through trial and error they finally ended up making good electric cars. even when vw started to sense that internal combustion was on its way out, it tried to protect its old model. instead of understanding the new thing on its own new terms, it kept trying to save itself with an electric version of the old one. by the time it got to where it could make a decent electric car, its brand had already taken major damage.

what's more, in the new world, customers had learned that led interior lighting and cameras aren't the expensive things vw was used to selling them as. things that were innovative and premium 20 years ago were now basically twenty cents extra. things that were expensive package features in the vw world became freebies in the china world. the system of vw, and really of all the european manufacturers, collapsed, and they did great damage to their brands while trying to protect the old instead of adapting to the new.