Every German Carmaker Built an Electric Flagship. Not One of Them Worked
Low Volume Capital
3,987 views
Every German carmaker built an electric flagship, and not one of them worked. The Mercedes EQS, the Porsche Taycan, the BMW i7, and the Audi e-tron GT were supposed to prove that German engineering would own the electric era the way it owned the combustion one. Instead, they became the clearest evidence that it would not.
This is the story of how four of the most expensive EV programs in Europe failed at the same time, for the same reason, and why the German EV failure was structural rather than a styling problem.
Mercedes closed US order banks on the EQS and EQE and cut 2026 EQ prices by as much as $15,300 on the EQS SUV, barely three years after launch. Porsche watched Taycan sales fall from 40,629 in 2023 to 16,339 in 2025, then to roughly 6,200 in the first half of 2026, and German reporting now says the car is being phased out before 2030. Audi and BMW spent billions on halo electric cars their own buyers never asked for.
The deeper problem is what a flagship is actually for. In the combustion era, the S-Class and the 7 Series existed to carry technology downward and justify the badge above it. In the electric era, the technology stopped coming from Stuttgart and Munich. It came from battery suppliers, from software, and from China. A flagship that cannot lead on technology is just an expensive car, and the German electric flagship had nothing left to lead with.
If you want to understand the German car industry crisis, this is where it starts.
#EVMarket #AutoIndustry #GermanCars #Economics #ElectricVehicles #GermanEVs #MercedesEQS #PorscheTaycan #CarIndustry #ElectricCars
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Every German Carmaker Built an Electric Flagship. Not One of Them Worked
Low Volume Capital
3,987 views
Every German carmaker built an electric flagship, and not one of them worked. The Mercedes EQS, the Porsche Taycan, the BMW i7, and the Audi e-tron GT were supposed to prove that German engineering would own the electric era the way it owned the combustion one. Instead, they became the clearest evidence that it would not.
This is the story of how four of the most expensive EV programs in Europe failed at the same time, for the same reason, and why the German EV failure was structural rather than a styling problem.
Mercedes closed US order banks on the EQS and EQE and cut 2026 EQ prices by as much as $15,300 on the EQS SUV, barely three years after launch. Porsche watched Taycan sales fall from 40,629 in 2023 to 16,339 in 2025, then to roughly 6,200 in the first half of 2026, and German reporting now says the car is being phased out before 2030. Audi and BMW spent billions on halo electric cars their own buyers never asked for.
The deeper problem is what a flagship is actually for. In the combustion era, the S-Class and the 7 Series existed to carry technology downward and justify the badge above it. In the electric era, the technology stopped coming from Stuttgart and Munich. It came from battery suppliers, from software, and from China. A flagship that cannot lead on technology is just an expensive car, and the German electric flagship had nothing left to lead with.
If you want to understand the German car industry crisis, this is where it starts.
#EVMarket #AutoIndustry #GermanCars #Economics #ElectricVehicles #GermanEVs #MercedesEQS #PorscheTaycan #CarIndustry #ElectricCars