German automakers are suffering because their sales in the Chinese market has tanked. Not going hard on EVs would have left them in an even worse situation.

Take VW: in 2020 they were by far the biggest automaker in China with ~16% market share. In 2023 they had fallen to number two at ~10% behind BYD. But now that they are starting to have competetive BEVs in their lineup they are tied for first place in the market at ~13% market share.