When subsidies threaten innovation

The traffic turnaround. Much is written about it, talked about. It carries social explosives in itself, and if it goes to the federal government, then they should finally take up speed 2020. In order for the citizens to develop their desire for it, the purchase price for an electric car climbs from 4.000 to 6.000 €. The subsidies are not helpful for everyone. Because they threaten innovative start-ups.

Sono Motors and Sion prototype
Sono Motors and Sion prototype

On the 5. November it was time again. A new auto summit in the Berlin Chancellery, 4 hours with high-ranking representatives of industry and politics. The result: more subsidies for hybrids and for all-electric vehicles. Government and industry give a green coat, environmental protection is top priority, consumers should buy now please.

Now summit talks in the government headquarters are by no means so that Angela Merkel invites you to a chat with cookies, cakes and coffee. And that in the end there is a result nobody would have expected. Surprised are at most the citizens who learn the latest news on the tablet. Before, there were months of intense lobbying, and the industry knows exactly what it is doing.

What should be an incentive to buy as an additional bonus was priced in advance. Of the greats in the industry who entertain legions of lobbyists in Berlin and Brussels. For the benefit of consumers and for their own sales. To the detriment of start-ups and innovative lateral thinkers. They are not sitting at the coffee party in the chancellery. The 3.000 € own contribution of subsidies are to cope for Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. For Sono Motors or ego probably less. That's a shame and that's wrong. After all, it is the newcomers who produce the vehicles that are needed if the traffic turnaround is to become something serious.

Both start-ups build or plan small, light cars. No big, heavy electric vehicles like the established industry. Less is more, rethink, save resources. Sono Motors and e.Go are ticking like that. The big ones do not seem to be. From Volkswagen come products that are just like a Golf. Only hold electric and digital. Audi understands very little and sends heavyweights to the start, Daimler and the rest are not better either. A clear "continue as before", just with batteries instead of burners.

Rethinking? Does not take place.

Maybe because you do not want to expect the customer. Because marketing and consulting companies do not want to overwhelm the consumer. A new type of drive could already be enough of an imposition. Then even smaller, lighter, more flexible? Too much! I think the consumer should have the opportunity and decide for themselves. Small, light, innovative and flexible cars with courage do not come from Wolfsburg or Ingolstadt. Not even because small is also cheap and low-income. Passes the times when a brave Audi A2 or VW is an extreme 1 liter car brought to the streets.

Sono Motors and e.Go are in a price range below 20.000 €. The Sion, which is to run in Trollhättan from the tapes, costs 16.000 € without battery. Since it is difficult to own a share of 3.000 € as a purchase premium. In the show Quer of Bayerischer Rundfunk comes Sono founder Laurin Hahn to speak. The own contribution threatens the business model. All that remains is the option of giving up altogether or raising prices. And competitors e.Go? He has already drawn his conclusions. From January 2020 the prices for e.Go Life at 2.000 €. The cheapest model costs thus 17.900 €.

However, plague Sono Motors at the moment more worries. The financing is for the time being unclear, it runs one of the largest crowdfunding campaigns of the Federal Republic. 50 million € will be collected by the end of the month. But success is far from certain. This clarifies an additional weakness of the system. While China has been flooding innovative start-ups with billions for years through various instruments, Germany remains strangely passive. A state risk fund for start-ups is totally missing. Of course, 8 or 9 from 10 start-ups will not survive the first few years. But can we afford to remain passive with regard to massive Chinese subsidies?

"Open Source Project" from Munich

The compact Munich van is much more than just another electric car. He loads himself with solar cells himself, and he is a kind of "open source project". It should be accessible to external developers, the workshop manual is visible to everyone. It could, if so realized, be a trailblazer for innovation and sustainability. Saab once planned something similar. The IQon Project was referred to as Open Innovation and allowed independent developers to design new features for the vehicle.

The electric car premium exposes itself as a subsidy for the established industry. The certainly very good cars builds, but it lacks courage. If it's serious about protecting resources and the environment, then there must be less! Brave start-ups, lateral thinkers, should have a chance. They already have a hard enough time getting their products to market.

Innovative start-ups should be promoted in the spirit of the environment and innovation. Competition is good, the big ones can draw their conclusions, and newcomers get a chance. The road to the finished product is very expensive in the automotive industry. Germany should afford costs and lateral thinkers to preserve our industry. The demise of the once proud British auto industry, which was considered strong and invincible, should be a warning. Because even she was protected by the state, until there was nothing left to preserve.

Germany is prosperous. So rich that our government parks money somewhere between unused. Over the years in the so-called reserves for example. Around 42 billion € are suspected at the end of the year. Some of it could be taken. As seed money for competition and innovation. Then out of blatant confessions facts would. The location Germany can only benefit from it.

20 thoughts too "When subsidies threaten innovation"

  • I'm not going to buy an electric car or a plugin for tens of thousands of euros. In the meantime, most people do not know that electric cars are as environmentally friendly as the politicians and established manufacturers want to tell us.
    First, I will wait and see which drives will actually prevail in the next one.

  • Excellent article with a clear message to politicians and industry! It needs no further comments on my part. Only the call to read this article in peace and to be on.

  • The mature citizens denied the current purchase incentives, speaks for the citizen!
    The citizen realizes what an e-fantasy might come to him: Unclear battery life, too few e-gas stations and knows the digital pitfalls of everyday life ... with dubious "apprenticeship".
    So: sustainable is who uses his car as long as possible. Where "long" does not mean "much". 😉
    The lobby is really different: sell everything, then everything will be fine. Frightening!

  • At a certain age, you think zero about a new technology!

  • Man, Tom

    that is brilliantly analyzed and written. Once again, I take my hat off of this style, which so often knows how to handle difficult topics and complex relationships (from politics, economy, subsidies and the environment) so elegantly and compactly in a conclusive article. This is really inimitable ...

    I miss such a quality in the established and public media painful. How can it be that a blog about a bankrupt car brand is so blessed, while the leading media seems to be dominated by an intellectual humanitarian emergency?

  • How long should such a subsidy look or go? What happens if Sion and Co no longer receive subsidies? How durable are such companies without subsidies? The state withdraws sometime, which is correct. Even Opel was then considered not system relevant and was left to his fate.

    • Subsidies should exist until a promising start-up can leave the "nursery". Say, it is capital-marketable and can independently procure additional funds. The possibilities for this are manifold.

      Do not get me wrong: I'm not a supporter of subsidies! They are market distorting, but the government has been doing it for years. Mostly in favor of established companies. On the other hand, we have been losing our best founders' heads to North America for decades because there is a sophisticated venture capital scene there. The other side, in this case China, works with non-transparent methods and generously promotes everything that could somehow bring success. And in between we stand.

  • ok, then i misunderstood it. I think it's good to give venture capital to start ups! Maybe not quite as in North America, capital is easier, faster forgiven, but just as quickly withdrawn. Such a middle ground would be desirable.
    In order to finance this, the "old" large corporations should not be given subsidies.

  • Exactly that is the case here, the subsidies distort the Mart at the expense of Sono and eGo!

  • really well written and correct in the core statement.

    I have a lot of insight in companies, even with brilliant ideas, but since subsidies only run on banks, you can forget it - risk-taking is almost zero. the bankers are frozen in their arrogance and their "better knowledge".
    I drive my 900er, so I do not need the whole thing, but it destroys good ideas for the future of all our children!
    a customer of mine had to file for bankruptcy three years ago, because a large company has not paid mio for political reasons over 1,7. He has again started his own business, with brilliant ideas, especially in the area of ​​energy savings in the industry.
    this company will also have to close again - because of its past, it does not get a cent from the banks; one does not even want to ask for federal subsidies - too much work.
    what does it always mean: everyone can drop, make a difference those who get up again!
    puff cake - it's just a saying.

    a tip: send your thread in exactly this version of woman merkel - and the green.
    less like nothing can not bring it, but maybe at least the remainder function of reflection will work!

  • With the topic I am Totalverweigerer. I can not win anything in one or the other e-car and digital scrap. I do not understand why you have to impose something on the citizens what hardly anyone wants. There are so many other easier ways to be eco-friendly.

  • Everything's devil stuff ...

    everyone says and depending on the direction of faith either the burner or vehemently oppose the e-mobility.

    Tom's reference to innovative and economical burners that have ever existed is very important to me. Even then, it seemed easy to halve the need for liquid fuels in road traffic. In turn, the reduced demand would have enabled a high proportion of biofuels, so we could already have a fourfold better CO2 balance in this sector today.

    Today, we would have a completely different discussion and politics and business could look back with pride on what they had achieved if they had set the right course.

    Instead, everything is now really devil stuff, be it the Cybertruck or the company car of Berlin's mayor, who just went through the media with 408g / Km as a record holder ...

    Conciliatory and frightening at the same time, so that everyone is right. There are good reasons to paint the devil on the wall - be it in the form of a 600Kg battery or a gas-guzzler ...

  • Thank you for your insight and explanations

  • Devil stuff, there's probably more to that than you're willing to see.

    As legitimate as the idea of ​​a relatively cheap electric car is to propel e-mobility, it also implies some of the conditions that make it difficult. These include, among other things, the cost-intensive mass production, but also brings the scaling effects that make up the price advantage over the term.
    Maybe in the environment described, the idea of ​​a small batch production is more promising, but of course the idea must be different, otherwise it will not work. To compensate for the relatively high parts prices, you have to offer in a high-margin segment in which low volumes are not a problem, but rather an advantage, so you end up with expensive sports cars or luxury cars.
    Anyway, the only e-vehicle provider that has something of a success, Tesla, did it that way. And at Lightyear you can see in the future whether this concept can also be successful for a solar electric car.

    But that was not the idea of ​​Sono, but they also have to exist in the existing reality. If they can not do it, you can see it as a wicked feint of fate, that with the already much scolded Cybertruck nevertheless a solar charging option should come on the market, but of course for a very different group of buyers.

    And who is against the e-mobility, because the battery production is not particularly environmentally friendly, should ask what happens with all the lithium and cobalt mined, where vehicle batteries in the current sales figures are just a niche application.
    Then you may find that a considerable part is needed for steel, glass, ceramics, lubricants and much more. And the not so small part for the battery production is likely to land at over 90% in the popular electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, tablets, notebooks, digital cameras, Navis, and so on. However, when buying all of these products, most consumers probably do not feel guilty about the waste of South American groundwater or child labor in Congo.

    There may actually be only bad choices, which should make the future exciting, albeit in a way that presumably does not generate anticipation.
    Or adapting reality to the challenges of the future may be the most sensible idea one can have. However, the current policy does not give the impression that this is happening.

    Devil stuff everywhere, despite Christmas ...

  • @ StF,

    in advance of my commentary on the info, no thumbs down from me. If there are, they are not from me, not my style.

    Instead, here's a critical remark. I can no longer hear the tale of the cross-financed world rescue through Mr. Musik (or whoever). Already a quarter of a century ago, automobile companies sold us ever larger and faster boxes with the same arguments.

    As image and technology carriers, they benefit the broad masses and the environment. Bla bla bla …

    I find it a little original and intellectually offensive when this old tea bag is still poured daily after 25 years. This porridge simply does not taste good - no matter whether the tea water comes from an electric kettle or another kettle ...

  • @ Herbert Hürsch

    I'm sorry, I've read my comment three times now, but it's still not clear to me where I say Tesla is saving the world. Actually, I'm even of the opinion that a statement like "something like success" is a critical score that is quite understandable, but apparently online communication is only possible with Holzhammer arguments, otherwise no one understands more.

    But what I actually think about Mr Musk is, among other things, that he has been thinking quite thoroughly about how he gets his store funded. And he probably came to the conclusion that he will never get enough money for a mass production without having a product on the market.
    And that he obviously has progressed with a small series production of the Roadster, as Google, Apple, Dyson, Faraday Future and who else everything publicly, or under the hand meant that he could build an electric car, but no one can seriously deny. And whether his company survives, is honestly not yet settled.
    I do not know him personally, but what can be read in the press, suggests that he otherwise struck with some human deficits, which is said to be "technically brilliant minds" like. (I hope the quotes are sufficient, or have I just stylized it again to the savior of the world?)

    If you tell me that I think it would be a good idea to adjust to the given realities, if you want to implement your ideas, instead of thinking that I have a good idea, it has to assert itself, then you can of course, but my experiences are different.
    If I extrapolate the numbers published by Sono linearly, it looks like they will reach about 25.000.000 €, so fail. In my opinion, they have turned the wheel too late, but I would still be glad if I was wrong, but right now, the slogan seems to fit in here again.

    Even with lithium-ion batteries apparently measured with two levels, which in my opinion is based on any meaningful Eischätzungen, I see quite as a fact. The lithium & cobalt reduction definitely will not stop if no electric cars are produced.

    And if you do not like the old tea, here's a fresh cup for you: If climate change does not turn out to be as bad as predicted, I suspect that we're going to get microplastics to save the organisms living on the planet.
    Well get ...

  • It's forbidden to fool around online (Greetings to the technical mechanics), by the way, the striking saying is 'Well meant is not well done' and should not be in brackets (Greetings to everyone else).

  • @ StF,

    I do not want to reproach you. I just wanted to add one aspect to the discussion. The very fact that luxury goods are often given a higher purpose.

    In the case of Tesla this happens repeatedly. We need more products that directly address social and environmental issues. Less of those who are based on the empty and threadbare promise that they would do so in a roundabout way (such as a cross-financing) anyway.


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