Automobile Manufacturer & Electric Cars

[Lightproton]

Dear Capitalism Lab team, Dear Capitalism Lab community

Hope you are all fine and safe

The automobile industry is probably now entering a phase of a major change and disruption due to the advent of electric cars. We see in some markets a highly dynamic situation with a highly volatile price for electric cars. Potential reasons are the sudden termination of very high subsidies by governments and excess supply from high growth of world-wide production capacity, as well as from a decreasing demand. Some experts assume that this causes a vicious cycle. Also the secondary market with used cars is impacted. As the re-selling price for used electric cars decreases, consumers are even more hesitant to buy an electric car.

I think this is a very interesting scenario for Capitalism Lab for users to experience the disruption of the automobile industry in Capitalism Lab.

- Make available the hybrid electric car product from ~2000
- Make available the full electric car product from ~2010 (BEV)
- Make available a fuel cell bus product from ~2010 (FCEV) - @13thscholar
- Hybrid cars, BEVs and FCEVs would be available as R&D projects from the specified year - @Stylesjl
- Add Lithium as a natural resource
- Add Li-ion battery (year 2000), solid state battery (2025-2030?) as a semi products - @13thscholar
- Add electric motos and fuel cells as semi products - @13thscholar
- Simulate the cycle from increasing electric car demand and decreasing demand for internal combustion engines, tipping point could be ~2025-2030
- Internal combustion engine cars (ICEs), electric cars would coexist, but demand would adapt (ICEs slowly declines, BEVs grow) - @bycomet
- For FCEVs, the demand grows independently of ICEs and BEVs, because buses are not competing with consumer cars, but it has a smaller market size
- Add electric cars to seaports from ~2020 onwards, to simulate a situation like BYD is currently ramping up exports to Europe by operating their own cargo ships)
- Simulate government policies which change over time: subsidies, tax exemptions on electric cars vs. phase out commitments, higher taxes and prohbition of transit for internal combustion engines in the city
- Simulate electric re-charging and hydrogen infrastructure growth through governemnt policies and subsidies
- Add a building type of gas stations, electric re-charging (~2010) and hydrogen stations (~2010) - Demand of BEVs and FCEVs would depend on availability of infrastructure
- Add a store type for the secondary market of used cars and simulate the secondary market based on the market for new automobiles (prices are correlated)
- Let AI companies act as suppliers (Tier-1 to Tier-n) to the automobile end-product manufacturers (OEMs)
- ...more?

Probably, this is already a starting point for a DLC. I believe this could be a very interesting scenario for users. Uncertainty comes from, that the economy is just now in the middle of disruption and the result is not known yet...

Curious to read your feedback! Thank you!

PS: This idea came to my mind when producing this Youtube video. https://youtu.be/mip71UCjBj8 I think the scenario gets a little bit unintersting over time, as it is kind of too linear? Though I like the challenge from the good balancing

EDIT: Added ideas from others in this thread

[rafaeltodero]

very interesting idea.

[13thscholar]

I like it a lot, to the point of thinking about how to implement it, perhaps there are 2-3 sources of batteries to step through or have research drops on.
something like;
Li-ion 2000 -->could be used in other productions.
Molten salt -->2010
Solid State -->2025

There could be bromide, hydrogen or any other similar technology chains.

I haven't dabbled into service dlc yet, but it could go through the phases as well, such as Gasolene, Electricity, Hydrogen.

if it came up for a vote, I'd happily add to the yes side

[cantdownloadit]

i would see this as an ideal mod someone could make..

[Stylesjl]

I don't think that the car products should be fixed to a certain year, rather they could just be R&D projects like the Digital Camera, Smart Phone, etc. Once you have researched those items then the old items will go obsolete and will have reduced sales that drop to zero. A similar rule could be implemented for Hybrid/Electrical vehicles. Also, I like the idea of battery semi-products.

[bycomet]

old items will go obsolete

It is too early to say gas cars will be obsolete. Is electricity new energy? No, people use electricity from 19th century. Is it clean? Depends on how electricity is generated, by burning coal, gasoline, natural gas, or solar energy conversion? And how are batteries recycled? This leads to factors such as price and pollution to consider and we already have such factors modeled in game. I'd say gas cars and electric cars will be like desktop computer and notebook computer to coexist for a long time.

[Lightproton]

Thank you for all of your feedback! I extended the post a little bit by the mentioned ideas with naming those providing the ideas.