Typical German journalism. I grew up there. Just watched the TV documentary...
One of the people said Germany was in the very bottom of the list of countries when it comes to EVs. That's just total nonsense. Lots of numbers are compared that are not equalized, lots of statements are torn out of context. While it is true that the German car industry isn't exactly leading the EV market, they are still doing a lot more than the average car maker. The only one fully pushing EVs is Tesla obviously as that is their only product. Tesla sales numbers are peanuts compared the mass market of the ICE cars. It's a very competitive market and no other car manufacturer wants to lose money on that market by pulling too many resources to EVs that are not making any money at this point. From a business point of view it makes total sense that when you make 99% of your income from one market, you won't spend all your efforts on the 1% that isn't making you money.
The documentary actually explains how BMW is making very good and smart efforts. The i3 production facility uses far less energy than a traditional car manufacturing process (using aluminum like Tesla is the worst in terms of energy consumption). It cost less to set up the i3 facility and the result, working with carbon fiber materials, makes the car a lot lighter. Lots of innovative long term thinking.
Anyways, they go on about how ridiculously expensive EVs are and how they use traditional boring design. Of course they only ask that question while talking about the eGolf, not when they show the i3. LOL
Then they point out how Germany is missing out on battery development. Definitely true.
They keep sprinkling on how inadequate EVs are. The whole list. Range anxiety, how inconvenient it is to charge, having to make compromises. Not a German car maker problem. It's a general EV problem that goes across all manufacturers except Tesla.
They say the government isn't doing enough and then a minute later they criticize how the government has given financial help to some manufacturers and charging stations. OK so what is it?
When they talk about the Mercedes SUV (a plug in hybrid) they drive it until the battery is dead, then, when the car has to switch to 100% ICE, they look at the current consumption and say, 'see it's higher than the official numbers, they are cheating'. Of course they don't count the 31 km they drove 100% electric before. If the average daily driving distance is 60 km, then you get half of it from electricity and only half of it gasoline. What they did is totally ignore the electric mileage and only mentioned the ICE consumption. Poor journalism.
They only show people who rented an EV for a few days and interview them as they are struggling instead of actual EV owners.
They criticize that the car industry and the government talk to each other. They seriously think it's bad. Are you kidding me?
I really think it's a poor piece of journalism. Yes I wish the German car industry would do more. Just like I wish all car manufacturers would do more. But looking at who is doing what I don't think you can say the US car industry or the Japanese car industry or the German car industry is generally doing better or worse. There are some good advances, some serious, some just compliance cars. They are across the board. Toyota is dissapointing, Nissan is doing great. Mercedes is slow, BMW is doing much more. GM is doing OK with the Volt, Tesla is the king. I really don't think this documentary is showing much.