Some bizarre celebrations over the far right German party AfD which picked up about 20% of the votes which was what polls predicted well before Elon Musk & JD Vance started promoting them.

Musk's influence was negative except the plunging sales of his Tesla in Germany (ever since that salute) may be an unwanted result.

It also means a healthy 80% of German voters didn't want the AfD (although the conservative party picked up most votes) a party that's even too extreme for France's Marine le Pen who wants nothing to do with them.

My pal who just got the newest Tesla which looks exceedingly nice tells me he didn't actually sell the previous one on the market but sold to a relative at a knock down price.

Unfortunately the new owner lives in an apartment block and has been refused permission to use the underground car park as the Body Corporate said he'd have to bear the cost of a new sprinkler system..lithium battery fires are horrendous.. plus an enormous hike in the building's insurance policy.

Now I read an engineer's report warning on the nightmare aspect of those lithium batteries, placed scarily under the driver and passenger seats..that if they catch fire, it's so fierce a dozen fire engines are needed.

The Tesla truck (which many owners love) is now banned in the UK and most of Europe over safety concerns in a crash.

I was a fan of EVs but I'm going off them fast when you read various experts reports..the fire angle, the cost of creating electricity as opposed to oil drilling, the safety aspects , the soon to burgeoning insurance costs rapidly depreciating re=sale value and so on.

Are they the great climate saver claimed?

Hertz has just lost $2.5Billion after purchasing 1000s of Teslas no-one wanted to rent. Ford has lost $2B in trying to develop a useless model they abandoned.

Yet my Chinese taxi driver the other day said he's just returned from China where EVs are now the majority of cars on the roads and there are dozens of fabulous models to choose from.

Is Musk the modern day John DeLoreon?

Check out the results map for the German elections. Almost the whole of the former East Germany has gone to the AfD, with the former West Germany largely voting for the CDU/CSU. So much for reunification. Wonder if this will encourage Putin, if he wasn't thinking about it already, to set his sights on reclaiming the former East Germany.

www.reuters.com/graphics/GERMANY-ELECTION/RESULTS/movaynkgova/