> has strict EV quotas and no one wants to buy German EVs that are too expensive and less capable than Chinese made EVs

Both China and the US have enacted trade barriers against EU originated auto drive goods.

A Chinese VW ID4 is manufactured in Shanghai and an American one in Tennessee. And that is the crux of the issue - consumers are still open to buying a German badged product, but it won't be "Made in Germany".

And where else can Germany export?

The individual EU states are protective about exports by leaning hard on nationalism and union support as seen in France (Renault+Stellantis) and Italy (Stellantis), India demands China- and US-style JVs and domestic manufacturing as well even despite the EU FTA, Japan and SK prefer buying domestic, Russia is blocked due to sanctions, ASEAN+Africa is flooded with Chinese, Japanese, and Indian manufactured cars already, and South American is flooded with Chinese, American, Japanese or domestically manufactured cars.

Germany Inc will remain in Germany as long as Germany makes itself attractive. Otherwise, they will leave, as they have already done so for the US, China, the CEE, and increasingly India.

The VW EVs aren't bad, apart from poor UX design, which they have realized.

Broadly speaking they're not _as far away_ from Chinese EVs as we all make it here to be. However, the problem is that the stockholders of all these companies expect 500% YoY growth which isn't sustainable. Not to mention the cost of a car has grown significantly while all German cars have degraded substantially in quality. For example, you can expect Porsche to sell FOREVER the number of cars they manage to sell in the 00s and 10s:

    2000: ~54,600 (happy)
    2007: ~98,600 (happy)
    2019: ~280,800
    2025: 280,000 (CRISIS!!!)

I mean... It's a freaking sports car! Why on earth would you expect to sell more units than these?

Broadly speaking internet commentary about cars is crap and the differences between any two competing products (i.e. ignore the dishonest comparisons between a Chevy Cobalt and a Toyota Landcruiser) are way, way smaller than the online fanboys, shills and people with a very expensive purchasing decision they want to feel validated in will lead you to believe.

They are on par or better than their Chinese counterparts but they are a hard sell being 30-50% more expensive.

The same new VW ID.3 in China costs less than $20K, while in EU more than $40K.

Not the BYD or noname EV, the same model.