VW says combustion cars will fade away after 2026
I&#x27;ve pointed this out in other discussions, but might as well point it out again.<p>One of the problems that VW is about to encounter is that its interests as a manufacturer run directly opposite to its dealers&#x27; interests.  VW wants to start selling pure electric cars because that is where the market is going.  However any VW dealer who convinces a customer to buy an ICE car has also sold themselves good odds of a future revenue stream maintaining that car.  However if they sell an electric car they are going to see that car less often.<p>Therefore VW can make electric cars, but its dealers will try to not sell them.  This opens up an opportunity for new brands because people in the market for electric cars are likely to try to buy electric cars similar to the ones that they see on the road.  Which means that shiny Tesla, those glorified golf carts you sometimes see, and all of the up and coming electric car brands in China and India that would love to break into Western markets.<p>The history of disruptive innovation suggests that the end result is likely to be that people switch to new companies and most existing car companies will go out of business.  So far everything about the transition to electric has followed the usual course (including established companies publicly announcing that they are switching technologies because they know where the future is), so there is no reason to believe that the result will be different this time.