This is a new theme on the blog (that will run under the sub-heading “News” such as not to complicate things), where the idea is to bring you a few items currently talked about in the car world from time to time. No strict plans so most probably a bunch of different things with a few weeks’ interval. In this first piece, we’ll travel from Germany to China and back over Italy – enjoy the reading!

Germany used to be the place to start for pretty much anything car related but today, unfortunately, you do so mostly for other reasons. This is however a funny one. In 2022, some 2.6 million new cars were sold in Germany, but only around 400 of those were Ferrari F8’s. That’s perhaps not very surprising, but what is more so is the fact that that number is almost identical to something very far from any kind of Ferrari, namely the good old Land Rover Discovery. 

The latest Disco has been around a while and is one of the roomiest and most offroad capable SUV’s out there, if ever you were to venture outside of the beaten path, which of course 99% of all buyers never will. It’s also one of the boxiest, and I guess one reason for its lack of success is that not many people want to confuse their car with their fridge.

Other downsides include the price (superior to a comparable X5 or a GLE), running costs (on par with a Range Rover and not something I necessarily want to go into in more detail, but it’s bad…), and a questionable quality reputation, as is mostly the case with anything from the Land Rover brand.

On the plus side though, next to the roominess that comes with its shape, is sublime comfort, as said unbeatable terrain capability and, as it turns out, the fact that you won’t see one on every corner. So as long as you don’t confuse it with your fridge, the Disco is the Ferrari F8 for the family!

Staying in Germany, the next theme is far less funny, but unfortunately very typical of what goes on today. Next to the country’s completely failed energy policy, the Green finance minister Habeck has now removed subsidies on EV’s, which – surprise! – has caused such a drastic fall in sales that VW have had to let go of several hundred workers in their new model EV factory in Zwickau.

One of the reasons EV’s don’t sell very well once subsidies are gone is the fact that they’re not very competitively priced. A good case in point is the VW ID.3, basically an EV Golf, which sells for no less than EUR 40.000 in its basic configuration with a 55 KwH battery, to which you need to add another EUR 10.000 to get the larger 77 KwH battery. As a comparison, a combustion Golf in the same country costs from EUR 30.000 and upwards.

Where it gets really interesting though is when you learn that the same ID.3 costs less than EUR 20.000 in China. The reason is simple: China continues to heavily subsidize its EV industry and it’s only at this price that VW can hope to sell any ID.3’s at all. The practical implication is thus that German EV buyers subsidize Chinese ones, which I don’t believe Herr Müller was necessarily informed of by his VW salesman…

We’ll leave Germany for now and go to a happier place and happier news, namely that Alfa Romeo is planning to build a new supercar! This is of course something that makes any car enthusiast’s heart beat faster, especially since it’s been longer than anyone cares to remember since the 33 Stradale, which Alfa says is the new car’s predecessor, hit the roads.

The new car will thus be built 33 times and before you start making plans, all of them are already sold. It looks neat, much nicer than the Maserati MC20 if you ask me, the car with which it shares its six-cylinder turbo engine, here developing 620 hp.

That’s if you opt for the combustion version, because Alfa also gives you the option to order the new car as a 750 hp EV as well. And although the order book is already filled, they haven’t yet divulged how the two version split between the 33 sold.

My guess, especially if the trend we saw last week with the SF90 Stradale is anything to go by, is about 33 petrol. As for the price the 33 lucky owners have paid for the pleasure, it’s a pretty chunky EUR 3m. That would get you no less than 75 VW ID.3’s in Germany – or of course twice as many if you happen to be in China!