2023-09-05 03:03:11
Unlike the textile or smartphone industry, the European car industry still manages to escape cheap Chinese competition.
But, observers agree, this should not last: a string of brands are preparing their models for the Old Continent, as illustrated by the strong presence of China at the Munich Motor Show (IAA), which takes place holds this week.
These newcomers combine technological advance – thanks to China’s investments in electricity for the past dozen years – and low labor costs.
European governments are urging manufacturers on the continent to make electric mobility accessible with a view to banning new thermal or hybrid vehicles in 2035.
A message that should be taken up by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who inaugurates the IAA on Tuesday.
Electric at 20,000 euros?
In China, list prices for electric cars are “up to 60% lower than prices in Germany”, notes Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, expert in the automotive industry.
The general manager of French Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, had evoked at the end of July an “invasion” of manufacturers who have “a cost advantage of 25%”.
The best-selling Chinese brand on the Old Continent, MG thus offers prices around 30,000 euros excluding environmental bonuses, depending on the entry-level models.
Founded in Great Britain in 1924 but relaunched after its bankruptcy in 2005 by the Chinese automobile giant SAIC, MG “benefits from its notoriety as an old Western brand as well as from the competitiveness of the Chinese market”, underlines Felipe Munoz, from JATO Dynamics.
In the first half of this year, Chinese brands captured 8% of the Western European electric market while their shares were almost zero in 2019, according to calculations by analyst Matthias Schmidt.
China’s top electric car maker, BYD, is expected to start flooding the European market from the second half of 2023, according to Schmidt. Its Atto 3 model has already topped electric car sales in July in Sweden, where more than a quarter of registrations are electric.
Opposite, European manufacturers are doing everything to reduce their production costs and offer cheaper models.
Even Mercedes, which has refocused its strategy on luxury, promised a model on Sunday to make electric “accessible”, Ola Kallenius said, without details.
In March, the German brand VW presented the future ID.2 at less than 25,000 euros, expected in 2025. It also plans to develop a model at less than 20,000 euros, a price at which few manufacturers have reached for the electric.
Stellantis is betting mainly on the electric Citroën C3, which will be unveiled in mid-October, and Renault will launch the R5 city car, promised below the 30,000 euro mark. The group’s Opel brand also plans to offer a model “around 25,000 euros” shortly after 2025, according to its boss Florian Huettl on Monday.
– “Patriotism” –
“The more electric models we have, the more we will benefit from economies of scale,” Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume explained on Sunday evening in Munich, betting on higher volumes to reduce prices.
By then, against a backdrop of economic slowdown, the market share of electric cars, which are still too expensive, should fall by 12% in September, according to Mr. Dudenhöffer.
In France, the government has promised an offer to rent electric cars “at affordable prices”, President Emmanuel Macron having mentioned the sum of 100 euros per month for this leasing, subject to means testing.
France also plans to condition subsidies for electric cars to an “environmental score” likely to limit Chinese imports.
In Germany, country of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, purchase bonuses are not considered a sustainable solution: to push manufacturers to market more electric vehicles at affordable prices, the government reduced the ecological bonus this year and plans to phase it out by 2025.
A situation that could weigh on the comfortable margins generated by European groups by taking advantage of inflation to drive up prices.
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