While many manufacturers have decided to join Tesla’s game by lowering the price of their electric cars, this is by no means the case for Volkswagen. The German firm is not the only one.
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Price parity between thermal and electric cars is still far from being achieved, particularly due to the cost of the raw materials needed for the batteries. And while the price of lithium is rising, the trend would be quite up, especially as demand is getting stronger. In France alone, electric vehicle sales surpassed diesel sales in December.
a sudden fall
Pending the rise of solid-state batteries, which could drive prices down, electric cars are therefore quite expensive. Nonetheless, there seems to be room for manoeuvre, as Tesla has shown. Indeed, the American firm has created a veritable tsunami by sharply lowering the prices of its Model 3 and Model Y, up to $13,000 overnight. A drop that follows the worrying situation in both China and the United States.
And this had the effect of a bombshell, causing several manufacturers to review their strategy. We think in particular of Xpeng, which has brought down the prices of its P5, P7 and G3. A few days later, it was the turn of the Vietnamese brand VinFast to announce the implementation of promotional operations, without giving further details.
Finally, more recently, the American company Lucid lowered the price of its Air sedan, only for customers of its rental offer. Enough to hope to stay in the race against Tesla, which broke its sales record in 2022 with more than a million cars delivered. Finally, yesterday, Ford announced that it was lowering the prices of its Mustang Mach-E in the United States. A surprising decision, when the brand was not thinking of reducing its prices at all, but increasing its profits.
But not all manufacturers are ready to participate in this sudden price war. And especially not Volkswagen. In an interview with the German newspaper Sunday newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeinethe CEO of the brand, Olivier Blume stated thatno reduction was on the agenda at this time.
not everyone involved
The leader affirms “have a clear pricing strategy and focus on reliability. We are confident in the strength of our products and our brands.“. A subtle pike sent to the Elon Musk brand? In any case, no Volkswagen model, whose electric range currently consists of the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5 and ID. Buzz will not benefit from any price drop.
But the Wolfsburg firm is not the only one that refuses to participate in this field. how to explain automotive newsthis is also the case for Porsche, which even plansraise prices by 6% according to a spokesperson. The automaker also plans to launch a premium electric SUV, surpassing the Cayenne in terms of pricing. Already last July, the brand assured that it would be easier to increase its profitability thanks to electric cars.
Renault also opposes this price reduction strategy, although its CEO, Luca de Meo, however, advocates reducing the size of the batteries to offer cheaper cars in the future. But for now, there’s no reason to lower the number of cars already on the market. The new general manager of the diamond brand, Fabrice Cambolive, says that “if you reduce sales prices by 10% or more in a week, you hurt residual values and hurt existing customers».
A phenomenon that affects Tesla owners precisely, while the price of used models has fallen sharply in recent times. However, Renault is not closed to a revaluation of prices, while its leader affirms that “EV prices are expected to come under intense scrutiny».
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