German automakers trying to catch up as EV race heats up, Barron’s says

While the U.S. Big Three grapple with a revived United Auto Workers union, German counterparts Volkswagen (VWAGY), Mercedes-Benz Group (MBGYY), and BMW (BMWYY) have troubles of their own-trailing badly in the race toward the electric vehicle future, Craig Mellow writes in this week’s edition of Barron’s. True, every other household-name auto maker also badly lags behind Tesla (TSLA) and the Chinese in EVs, the author acknowledges. German auto makers as a group have budgeted an impressive $406B on research and development and factory construction over the next five years, chiefly focused on electromobility, says industry lobby VDA. One thing that Germany’s Big Three have in common is heavy dependence on China-for sales and, increasingly, technology, the publication adds.