
BMW CEO to quit after carmaker loses early lead in electrics - reddotX
https://apnews.com/cdae456e8c1948e5b7f01c602eda23dc
======
mwfunk
As others have pointed out, BMW has been in the EV market for years now with
the i3 and i8. I think where they dropped the ball is that they seemingly
didn't want to cannibalize sales of their other vehicles.

The i8 is extremely niche and low-volume and can't be much of a factor for
them. This left the i3 as their only EV offering. But the i3 is so unlike
everything else they make, that they can't build on their appeal to people who
already like their cars. That really doesn't build on any of BMW's strengths
in the auto industry, in fact it attempts to avoid all of their strengths in
the market (German sports luxury vehicles with a lot of history). This it
really hard for them to compete with Tesla and other EV makers that are going
right for the core of BMW's customer base.

I think part of it was that they didn't want to cannibalize themselves, but
surely BMW would rather be cannibalized by BMW than eaten by Tesla. They just
didn't have the strength to make that move, for whatever reason.

~~~
mstade
I think there's a lot of insight in this comment. I also believe a lot of
customers (current and potential) would really like to buy an EV from an
established car maker rather than a new comer, and I believe they really want
it to look and feel just like a 3-series, or 5-series, or whatever they're
called – not the abomination that is i3. I believe this is what everyone
except Tesla understands, and I really don't know but maybe it's exactly for
the reasons you lay out: they don't want to cannibalize on the gas guzzler
series. But if they don't eat themselves, someone else sure will!

~~~
evo_9
My abomination i3 is the best car I’ve ever owned. To each there own, I
personally think it looks like it came out of Blade Runner and the only real
complaint I have is I wish it were AWD and had wider, less bicycle-like tires.

~~~
maxsilver
> I wish it (had) less bicycle-like tires.

Agree completely. I absolutely love the i3 (especially the futuristic design,
and the rex engineering), and was going to try to get one at some point --
until I discovered the bicycle tires.

I'm not sure it's even safe to drive on US roads with tires like that. Did BMW
forget that potholes are a thing?

~~~
zwily
My bro-in-law had one and liked it, then moved to Nebraska. First snowfall
they had to get rid of it - it was terrible on anything slippery.

~~~
injb
Then he had the wrong tires, guaranteed.

~~~
akmarinov
Exactly - bicycle tires.

~~~
javagram
Perhaps the parent meant to suggest
[https://www.bmwblog.com/2015/04/04/bmw-i3-winter-tires-
revie...](https://www.bmwblog.com/2015/04/04/bmw-i3-winter-tires-review-
bridgestone-blizzak-lm-500-vs-nokian-hakkapelitta-r2/) for the winter. At
least according to that review, using the winter tires would have been better
in the snow.

Of course if you’d rather run all-weather tires without the hassle of changing
from summer to winter tires, it seems like the i3 is a bad choice.

~~~
untangle
The 19" tire is "All Season" rated. The 20" performance tire is "Summer Only."
So if you want an i3 "without the hassle" you simply get one with the more-
common 19" wheels.

~~~
javagram
Yep. I rock all season tires on my (not an i3) car as well. They’ll never be
great in the snow, but I live in an area where snow is rare so that’s fine.

I can certainly imagine the “bicycle” tires must not be very good at all in
the snow unless they’re the specialized winter version!

------
dependsontheq
The car industry has seen EVs only as compliance vehicles, sell 10% electric
and you just reduced your total fleet emissions by 10%. So you might be able
to stay in the business of heavy ICE luxury cars. That’s why their marketing
and sales sucked there was a defined number of these to be sold and not more.
Now the game is changing and the wind is turning but it’s not Tesla driving
the change, it’s good old regulation. And it has always been regulation, the
actors are California, China and the EU. Several countries have now decided on
a defined year when the last ICE is going to be sold so the future market is
already shrinking and other countries will follow. There will be no market
left. Regulation.

~~~
Gibbon1
Well will point out that Tesla has been eating BWM's lunch in the mid range
luxo car market. That BWM hasn't been taking that seriously is a sign current
management needs to leave.

~~~
eganist
Worse, BMW thought they were in a comfortable position to exploit their
customer base for money -- cutting back on their maintenance program,
warranties, etc. and banking on people to not care.

If anything, BMW was driving people away from themselves faster than customers
were already fleeing to e.g. Tesla or, more recently, Audi (e-tron), Jag
(i-pace) and Mercedes (EQC) for electrics.

~~~
iso1337
Charging a subscription for CarPlay is unacceptable too

~~~
eganist
It's all of these little things adding up that caused me not to get a new
lease two years ago.

(this might become a BMW rant, for which I apologize)

1\. Reduced the 4y/50k maintenance to 3y/36k. This wasn't impactful for the
average lease but slammed car owners.

2\. Locked the maintenance program to the first owner -- as if they didn't
hate owners enough, you had to pay extra for a maintenance program that
transferred to the next owner.

3\. To your point: offensive subscription charges (carplay)

4\. (subjective) Bizarre styling changes on their mainstream cars, e.g. X7 and
the new 7 series.

5\. Refusing to produce normal electric vehicles, per the title of this
article.

End result is you now have cars like the i3 and i8 cratering in value because
they're hideously complex, in need of specialized maintenance knowledge, and
are exceedingly unlikely to carry a maintenance plan without incurring an e.g.
2, 3, 5k fee. It's awful for BMW because now nobody wants to buy one of their
more innovative cars because they'll lose 20% of their value right off the lot
and another 40% in the next three years, but it's even worse for people who
wouldn't mind adopting "established" electric because they don't want to
chance the marked-up repairs nor do the research to figure out which cars
either have pre-existing maintenance plans or how much they should pay to get
all-inclusive maintenance plans that would cover their used cars.

It's just a whole bunch of dumb all around.

~~~
cheerlessbog
Are i3's really "hideously complex"? An electric motor is far simpler than an
ICE. There is very little scheduled maintenance, for example. On the forums, I
do not see many stories of painful repair experiences. They just work.

~~~
iso1337
Maybe they were referring to the i3 REx, which also has an ICE.

Also i3s use a special, skinny tire that is really expensive

~~~
cheerlessbog
Yep looks like $600 and they only last 20-25K miles.

------
InTheArena
There has been a cultural war inside of BMW for quite a while. Klaus Fröhlich,
a board member and executive at BMW actually called EVS overhyped the same
week that BMW unveiled their current planning around EVs.

Most reviews have the Tesla Model 3 performance outperforming the similarly
priced M3. Many have the LR Tesla model 3 as competitive to sometimes beating
the BMW 3 series. The sales success at Tesla has come partially at the cost of
BMW car sales.

~~~
CPLX
They may be competitive in some performance metrics, which of course does
matter, but Teslas aren’t even remotely in the same league when it comes to
fit and finish.

Teslas feel cheap and poorly made. The offerings have some pretty stark
differences.

~~~
sabareesh
I see people online complain about fit and finish, but not sure the
credibility of people like you. I own a model 3 and there is 0 issues, if you
go and do a test drive then there is 80 % chance you will end up buying it if
you are in the market

~~~
CPLX
I’ve owned three BMW 3-Series sedans in a row. I was very very tempted by
Tesla, until I actually drove one.

It feels like a Honda Civic. Like a cheap downmarket economy car. Sure it has
acceleration but so does a BMW more than you’ll ever need too. The experience
is obviously disappointing if you’re used to German luxury cars.

The point being, that if the German luxury brands get the hang of the electric
thing Tesla’s going to be in severe danger.

~~~
kwhitefoot
> if the German luxury brands get the hang of the electric thing Tesla’s going
> to be in severe danger.

Of course.

I think that what is frustrating and annoying to many people is that BMW, VW,
Mercedes, et al., could have done the same as Tesla and done it better but
they didn't. And the only rational conclusion is that they behaved that way
because they were scared that they would cannibalize their existing product
lines and because a number of high ranking people in the car business would
have found themselves to be irrelevant and quite likely unemployed.

They have only themselves to blame for their short sighted, self serving,
polluting, cheating behaviour.

------
izacus
The internal politics in these companies has to be brutal - there are 1000+
people divisions not to mention hundreds of subcontracting companies to whom
building an EV is an existential threat. Think ICE component engineers,
gearbox experts, all the companies producing the parts for those cars... so
MANY people that have vested interest into making sure that the corporation
doesn't fire them and redirect resources to the EV project.

I wonder if those kind of corporations will even be able to change their
direction in time.

------
reubenswartz
Good. Maybe this will help. I’m not a “car guy”, but I appreciate driving
dynamics enough that I special ordered a BMW, picked it up in Munich, drove
around Europe, shipped it back and drove it in the states for 12 years. Really
nice car.

Got to test drive the Model S a few times and was impressed. But it’s
expensive, and despite the wonders of the low center of gravity and good
balance, it’s heavy. Also got to try a 3-series “E” as a loaner. Turned it in
wondering why the %#%* they didn’t just make it all electric, instead of the
11 mile electric range they gave it. I would have bought that car immediately.

When the model 3 came out, it seemed faster and slightly cheaper than the most
comparable 3 series. Personally, I prefer the Tesla interior to the Bmw. The
handling is much better than the S, and with the 3 series handling no longer
the focal point, I think the Tesla is more fun to drive, too.

Which leaves me scratching my head. I can only conclude that most traditional
car companies are run by ICE people who believe in tweaking engines to get
more power. They just can’t imagine that electric propulsion is not just an
environmental thing, but a better driving experience— instant torque, low
center of gravity, great balance— all the stuff that BMW was supposed to be
good at.

------
ardit33
BMW has an overall product problem as well, not just EVs.... their newest
cars' outside design is getting stale, and their cars just keep adding
weight...

They are loosing their 'sporty' pedigree and credibility fast, and turning
into another me-too luxury car brand, without a proper identity and/or market
distinctiveness....

Their new M8 "performance grand tourer" weights almost as much as a Ford F-150
Truck.... not kidding They can add as many 'sport badges to it', it is still
an overweight sedan...

The only improvement has been in interiors, where they always lagged. Their
quality has actually risen last few years.

~~~
pcurve
IMHO previous gen BMW models were stale. But all the new ones that came out in
the recent 1-2 year have been good, including current gen 3 series.

Agree on the interior quality improving, but only because they cost too much
corner in previous gen models, including F30, which was an abomination.

------
InTheArena
It's well worth watching Doug Demuro's review of both the BMW i3 and the Tesla
model 3. It will give you a quick understanding of why BMW is behind the 8
ball right now with regard to EVs.

~~~
teachrdan
Can someone who knows cars tell me how valuable Doug Demuro's analysis is? I
appreciate him as an entertainer but have no way to determine if what he's
saying about the cars he reviews is accurate and/or useful.

~~~
milkytron
His analyses are generally pretty good for things you notice and interact with
everyday (like another user mentioned, the quirks and features). He knows when
he sees bad quality, mistakes, and oversights in a car's UI/UX and design.

However, his opinion is usually based on a few days of driving and using the
car, and does not reflect how ownership of the car will actually pan out. He
attempts to take this into account with his "daily doug score". But by no
means is this entirely accurate, and is more so a reasonable estimate based on
the manufacturers history, that model, and consumer reviews.

I generally take his analyses as "This is what I thought after driving the car
for a few days" and is based on his opinion, his preferences, and his
thoughts. I would take his opinion into account for a rental car, but not so
much when it comes to owning a car for its lifetime.

He generally owns luxury cars or sports cars that are out of reach for most
people, and I'm sure he has spent a lot of money on them (although it may be
worth it if they appreciate in value). He has a different need in cars than I,
and probably than most people.

------
mtgx
"Who knew EVs would be more than a niche/compliance car market?!" \-- the
people running BMW's i-division.

I'm sure years from now Tesla will get _no credit_ for dragging incumbent
carmakers _kicking and screaming_ into the EV market, but they really should
get the lion's share of the credit for this. Because I'm certain that without
Tesla, BMW and other carmakers wouldn't even have started making "EV
platforms" or EVs from scratch until 2030+.

~~~
DamnYuppie
If memory serves me correct Toyota Prius was really the first to push the
Hybrid/EV concept mainstream. That isn't to say that Tesla didn't have an
impact but there were EV initiatives underway well before them.

~~~
jchw
Even though this is true, I actually think I agree with the premise that Tesla
was a big deal here. For all that is wrong with Tesla, they made electric cars
really cool, even to car people. I think that step was an important but
incredibly difficult step.

The Prius is fine. Practical vehicles. Probably still a more reasonable choice
for many. But, Tesla made electric cars look like the future, even to the
average person.

I must add that I am not really a Tesla zealot. I drive a Civic, Teslas seem
too expensive (not necessarily over priced, just too expensive for me) and
have their fair share of issues. But what they did for the perception of EVs
is different than what anyone else has done imo.

~~~
Gibbon1
The Tesla broke usual electric car strategy by making something hot not
utterly lame and stodgy[1]. Which is what all electric cars were until then.
The economics of that actually worked.

The Prius at least fit into Toyota's market segment.

[1] This is not totally true. There were some once off electric cars in the
1990's that were sporty. Friend dated a women that owned one. It only had a
range of about 40-50 miles but it was FAST.

~~~
justapassenger
> The Tesla broke usual electric car strategy by making something hot not
> utterly lame and stodgy[1]. Which is what all electric cars were until then.
> The economics of that actually worked.

Tesla did a great job at making EV cool, there's no question about it.

BUT, economics of that are still TBD. They still fail to achieve any
sustainable profit as a business, few years after their mass market vehicle
debuted, and have to keep on raising money, on very unfavorable terms.

~~~
matthewdgreen
Tesla cracked the problem of making people buy electric cars in significant
numbers. Everything else is a supply-chain and manufacturing optimization
problem. Extremely challenging, obviously, and maybe Tesla won't be the
winner. But those problems are fundamentally irrelevant until the you've
cracked the problem of mass sales.

~~~
justapassenger
Making people want a product isn't enough to get economics to work.

They struggle to produce it cheaply enough, at least as of right now.
Manufacturing, at scale and within costs is really really hard. Tesla's
initial math for cracking the economy was based on full automation of the
production, that failed spectacularly. As a result they have a lot of human
labor costs they didn't plan for, so problem of optimizing it got even harder.

Did Tesla made desirable product? Yes, of course. Can they crack the economy
of it? We'll see.

~~~
matthewdgreen
Tesla didn’t make people want the product. That’s meaningless. What they did
that matters is that they _made people pay for the product_ , at a price point
that competes favorably with BMW’s low-end luxury cars.

You’re correct that Tesla’s future and costs are uncertain, but that’s
irrelevant. What is relevant is that the production cost of a Model 3-type EV
will never be as high as it was in 2018. It will never be as high as it is in
2019. Even without miraculous supply chain improvements, the cost of lithium
batteries and electric drivetrains is on a relentless downward path. If Tesla
can make one now at $10 in profit (obviously they make more than that), then
whichever company is doing so in 5-8 years will be earning thousands in
profit. And if the manufacturer is not BMW, it will be the end of that company
as a viable competitor.

~~~
Gibbon1
Tesla was able to sell electric cars for more than the marginal cost per unit
in a large enough volume to be viable. Full stop. After that Tesla's
profitability or not is just accounting shenanigans. How bad/good a deal was
this for the investors. And is this company viable and make money. Are two
separate things.

Investors can lose their shirt on a viable company. Just as they can make bank
on a company that's a flash in the pan. Investors can often make money on
companies that are actually failing and going to fail. There is probably an
correlation between how hardball the company plays it's investors and the
companies ultimate viability.

~~~
matthewdgreen
As I said above, it really doesn't matter whether Tesla survives long term.
Just as it doesn't matter to the cellphone industry whether Nokia survives, or
to the PC industry whether IBM, Apple and Commodore survived. Tesla built the
product that proved the consumer demand existed today. BMW (and other
manufucturers') strategy was predicated on the idea that large-scale consumer
demand was years away. Tesla made that strategy obsolete.

------
todd8
I found the BMW i3 "teardown" by a reverse engineering company Munro &
Associates very interesting. The BMW EV i3 is described by them as "without a
question of a doubt the most advanced vehicle on the planet ... as
revolutionary as the Model-T when it came out". See [1]

[1] [https://youtu.be/rqiBWfsDTAA](https://youtu.be/rqiBWfsDTAA)

~~~
sabareesh
Did you see any of the latest videos where he compares i3, m3 and bolt

------
AcerbicZero
I'd prefer they quit prior to gutting the M division and turning their
motorsport legacy into mass market trash. Even the M2 is overweight,
overpriced, and underwhelming, though its the "best" M branded car made in the
past ~10 years.

~~~
ardit33
Their new M8 "performance grand tourer" weights almost as much as a Ford F-150
Truck.... not kidding

~~~
rys
You've said that repeatedly in the thread so I looked it up, and like
everything it just depends. Dry weight for some F-150 configs is actually
sightly less than an M8, but some configs (like the Raptor) weigh
significantly more.

------
aetherspawn
How did they not see this coming though?

Nobody wants an i3 because it’s a stupid looking car with no market edge over
I.e. a Tesla

And nobody can afford an i8

So they may as well threw their market lead for nothing. They failed to make a
practical vehicle, like the electric 3-series sedan that probably everyone
wished they made.

------
Ice_cream_suit
I am in the target market for a BMW i3.

However, I was turned off by the bizarre appearance of the car. I am pretty
thick skinned, but would still be thinking that other motorists were laughing
their heads off, while I was driving it.

Why do manufacturers feel obliged to make new technology cars looks like cheap
and nasty toys ?

------
golover721
Honestly BMW lost its way long before electrics. The BMW pedigree was always
about the drivability. They were never as “luxurious” as their competitors but
they were so much more fun to drive. Somewhere along the way they lost that
and became just another luxury car brand.

------
Zenst
VW CEO stepped down after the emissions scandal :-
[https://www.evo.co.uk/volkswagen/16715/martin-winterkorn-
ste...](https://www.evo.co.uk/volkswagen/16715/martin-winterkorn-steps-down-
as-volkswagen-ceo-in-wake-of-emissions-scandal)

BMW also got fined and caught up in doing the same emissions scandal :-
[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/car-
emission...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/car-emissions-
scandal-bmw-volkswagen-daimler-charge-eu-a8856806.html)

Yet it took this for the BMW CEO to step aside!

~~~
superpermutat0r
Stepping aside is the finest display of lack of skin in the game. Something
fails, you can just leave, while not returning any of the bonuses you "earned"
for your "finest" work.

~~~
Zenst
Maybe and the point about bonuses is so sadly true, but then they are never
negative when things fail, maybe they need to swing both ways in such
positions and install a truer sense of accountability.

Perhaps another way of implementing that would be that bonuses are held in
escrow for a number of years, the employee is allowed to get interest free
loans against those escrow bonuses up to a point perhaps, yet those bonuses
will equally be open to adjusting for bad years.

Which reminds me of the reinsurance industry and names, those who invest. Even
when they leave, they are still liable for future claims for a number of
years, a notice period. That's fair and works.

------
pentae
Meanwhile, the Porsche CEO recently wrote an opinion piece for USA Today where
he writes "Porsche thinks you’ll want your next car to be electric"

[https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/17/porsche-
pr...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/17/porsche-predicts-
american-consumers-adopt-electric-cars-column/1287505001/)

And they've been making a lot of noise about their plan to shift their lineup
to full electric (not watered down hybrids) for some time now.

------
high_derivative
The corrosive effect of misallocated inherited wealth. For context, BMW's
biggest shareholders are the Quandt/Klatten family.

Through the entire supply chain, hundreds of thousands of jobs and massive
impact on the wider economy, electrification, competitive effects in the
energy market, and climate change, all depending on a handful of people.

People who (in this particular context) have no particular motivation
for..really anything, with virtually infinite inherited wealth. Especially not
to rock the boat or drive any vision forward.

That, in a nutshell, is why Germany's car industry is dying long-term. VW
ownership same thing via Porsche SE.

I find this incredibly interesting, how entire economies ultimately lag and
long-term may fail on the bottleneck of a few randomly selected people.
Interestingly, there seems to be no good way out because disowning individuals
for the collective good is a path that historically does not tend to work well
for innovation either.

~~~
subroutine
When you say "disowning individuals" can I assume you're referring to
something like setting very high rates for inheritance tax? Why do you think
high inheritance tax 'historically does not tend to work well for innovation'?

~~~
high_derivative
I should clarify, I think there are a lot of good reasons for high inheritance
taxes if reasonably structured. I meant disowning people who are still alive
in a communist sense (do not want to start a discussion on socialism/communism
though), i.e. the government literally deciding someone is not fit to own such
a big piece of the means of production and taking it from them.

------
hbarka
Perhaps the internal combustion engine is the last dying gasp of analog
propulsion. Internal fire will be left to rockets.

------
fok
Remember the first sign in 2016: [https://electrek.co/2016/03/07/bmw-ceo-
tesla-interview-model...](https://electrek.co/2016/03/07/bmw-ceo-tesla-
interview-model-x-hit-head/)

------
princeb
there's too much talk of tesla.

BMW's main benchmark is Daimler and BMW lost the ICE race to them and also the
EV lead. Tesla didn't make enough cars to be a threat in the last 4 years.

all in all a very incompetent CEO. the only one in BMW history not to have an
8 year mandate.

------
theredbox
The EV is the new iphone and everyone is struggling to create the next
android.

~~~
r00fus
This is a very interesting analogy, with Musk:Jobs and Tesla:Apple

Back in the mid 00s, everyone thought the next big think looked like a smaller
PC (analogy: EV cars) or a souped up phone (analogy: EV bikes/scooters). The
iPhone changed the game (with Android quickly cementing that change).

What happens when it's more convenient to charge or have an EV-as-service than
gas-up or get a cab/uber? The automobile industry is due for a massive shakeup
and the more efficient batteries and more widespread chargers get, the more
likely that the future cuts out the petroleum economy.

~~~
rxhernandez
> The iPhone changed the game

I never understand blanket statements like these about the iPhone being a game
changer; the iPhone wasn't half as capable as a windows mobile phone for quite
awhile; if the makers of windows mobile phones hadn't stagnated for so long I
doubt Apple would have been anymore of a blip than Palm was; moreover, I'm not
sure the iPhone changed the game much at all, they really just iterated on
their competitors' innovations.

To me, Apple used their inertia from their innovative iPods to have a great
marketing success.

~~~
karlshea
> I never understand blanket statements like these about the iPhone being a
> game changer; the iPhone wasn't half as capable as a windows mobile phone
> for quite awhile

The second part of your sentence answers the first part of your sentence.

It's shockingly obvious why the iPhone was a game changer if you're doing
anything other than looking at capabilities and checking off lists of
features.

> To me, Apple used their inertia from their innovative iPods to have a great
> marketing success.

But on the other hand you think the iPod was innovative. When the iPod was
released everyone said the same thing as you're saying about the iPhone ("Less
space than a nomad. Lame."). In a comparison test with other MP3 players it
didn't come out on top, either.

Slick hardware and good UX is _way_ more important than people in tech give it
credit for. I used Windows Mobile before the iPhone came out and it was
complete trash, regardless of how many features it technically had.

~~~
rxhernandez
> It's shockingly obvious why the iPhone was a game changer if you're doing
> anything other than looking at capabilities and checking off lists of
> features.

It lacked MMS; it wasnt even really a phone, much less a capable smartphone.
You're grossly over simplifying if you call things like that a list of
features.

I used windows mobile phones for years before the iPhone. The iPhone was
complete trash to me because I couldn't do the basic things I was able to do
on a windows phone or even my flip phones before that.

> When the iPod was released everyone said the same thing as you're saying
> about the iPhone

I said precisely nothing about the iPod release. What I implied was that the
iPod was viewed as innovative by the time the iPhone was released (hence my
usage of the word inertia; inertia of iPod innovation counts for precisely
nothing at the release of the iPod).

> Slick hardware and good UX is way more important than people in tech give it
> credit for.

The iPhone wasnt even in the same league as WebOs phones as far as UX; why
didn't Palm make it very far? (Because UX counts for a lot less than you
think) The modern Apple is a marketing titan and the fact that anyone thinks
they're largely innovative is a testament to their marketing prowess.

~~~
matchbok
Eh, no. Windows phone was not good. Horrible UX for the average person.
Companies don't make phones for computer science graduates. The modern touch-
based UI was entirely an Apple creation.

------
RickJWagner
BMW used to make amazing sports sedans, too. They still have a few compelling
products, but largely they've lost their edge.

Hopefully this will shake things up.

~~~
pentae
Have you even seen the M2 Competition?

------
paulcarroty
"Hello" from Tesla.

------
jfoster
They should hire Elon.

~~~
B1FF_PSUVM
The way Apple hired Jobs by buying NeXT?

I don't think BMW (privately held) can raise the cash to buy Tesla, unless the
stock really tanks. It was more expensive than Ford a while ago.

P.S. And then the "culture fit" would be more fun than a barrel of monkeys -
probably break the internet a few times ...

~~~
cr0sh
> The way Apple hired Jobs by buying NeXT?

Not really a good comparison, since Jobs founded Apple, then left, then went
back (can't recall if they begged for him back, or if he just barrelled in).

------
geff82
Karma. One has to see that they recently launched their new X5 that was WAY
bigger than the predecessor and they seemed to be quite proud of it. They even
launched without a hybrid option (just as they do not offer hybrid with their
brand new X2). So building new, fuel guzzling SUVs was their idea to please
the shareholders instead of making cars smarter.

~~~
frankchn
Vehicles getting bigger is a trend in general across all manufacturers and all
vehicle categories, from the Toyota Corolla to the Lincoln Navigator. I think
the only car I can think of which hasn’t gotten bigger and heavier over the
years is the Mazda Miata.

