FIFY
Also, the government hinders as often as it helps, since they can always take over an industry or make it’s CEO disappear if they feel like it.
It's another tough loss for German and European industry. Battery tech requires a lot of electricity and German energy prices are simply not competitive. And EU regulations limit how much the German government can subsidize industrial electricity costs.
Lots of debt, expensive labor, expensive energy, and EU Battery Regulation and limits on subsidies all adds up to just losing the business completely to China.
Sorry couldn't resist....
Investment won't help there in any way, because if that investment were worth it, it would already happen because of market forces. If it doesn't happen on its own, then the state (doesn't matter which level) has to do it, which means using tax money, which means that prices will rise. So that state investment will further skew the market equilibrium, putting the EU further behind.
The current government is full of hardcore ideological incompetents captured by fossil fuel interests that wouldn't recognize a free market if it threw € bills in their face. Merz in particular can "admit" whatever he wants, it was an uninformed talking point to get a few points on media as a response to a small time-limited news wave on nuclear - nothing else to it. He's easily triggered.
The previous government extended the runtime of the shutdown-ready plants because of the energy crisis. Shutting off the last few hasn't had any significant impact on industrial energy prices https://www.smard.de/page/en/topic-article/5892/216044/indus...
"Varta Boldy Undertakes Strategic Restructuring to Unlock Value and Sharpen Business Focus"
They're kinda popular at least around Europe.
edit: I just remembered when I worked on TV production some years ago, and they bought big boxes of the "Industrial" variety of AA cells for the wireless mics and in ears.
As someone living here it’s still one of the most carefree and comfy countries I’ve lived in.
Who gave Russia all that money to convert to capitalism after the fall of the wall? The US. Who wanted Russia to become a capitalistic nation? The west.
That it failed is in whose interest? And who is scared of Chinese influence? And who outsourced all their manufacturing to China?
Sometimes context does matter.
FIFY
Although the government will invest in “startups” which meant that one defence (probably drones) related startup gets 500M euros - eggs and baskets comes to mind.
Germany is in invest in defence and conscript the young mode currently. We know where that will lead.
Btw., after his chancellorship, Schroeder got a post at the Russian state gas supplier Gazprom.
Natural gas, being 90% methane, is a valuable source of hydrogen.
[0] https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/ex-german-chancellor-sc...
[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der#Rosneft
When Russia invaded Ukraine suddenly several LNG terminals gained regulatory approval, even though previously those projects were in bureaucratic purgatory for years.
This is very much a market-based solution. What the state has to do is provide permits and stuff for getting the batteries etc. actually built; which the state is doing but not as fast as it could right now. (at least in Germany)