“Electric cars? rich stuff”
The minister Pichetto Fratin he had said it during the days of the negotiation in Brussels on the ttransition to the electric car in 2035emphasizing the fact that green models cost on average 30% more compared to the same cars with endothermic engine. And therefore the ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars from 2035 will penalize those with a low-average income and who therefore, inevitably, will have to keep the old car. According to the minister, the result will be paradoxical: instead of decreasing, pollution will end up increasing due to an increasingly obsolete car fleet. Remarks ignored by the European Commission which confirmed the ban with the sole exception for e-fuels. Well, the fact that the electric is actually “stuff for the rich” can be seen plastically in the data released by Mercedes relating to the first quarter of the year.
Electric towing
The sales Of Mercedes-Benz – reads a note from the company – they reached 503,500 units (+3%) in first quarter of 2023driven by high-end vehicles and electric vehicles battery operated. In particular, the sales of vehicles Bev rose to 51,600 units (+89%) in the first quarter, reaching 10% of total sales, compared to 6% in the same period of the previous year. The sales in the Top-End segment they rise to 91,800 units (+18%).
“Our customers’ desire for our high-end products and battery electric vehicles is the driving force behind our first quarter sales result,” he commented. Britta Seegermember of the board of management of the Mercedes-Benz group, as well as responsible for marketing and sales of Mercedes-Benz cars.
“In addition to this, we have successfully introduced our direct selling model in the UK, with Germany and two other markets to follow in 2023,” added -Seeger. – Looking ahead, there is the upcoming world premiere of the first all-electric Mercedes-Maybach Eqs SUV next week”.
Above 50 thousand euros
But just look at the podium of best-selling electric cars in the world to confirm that the green car is still for a few. In fact, all models with prices of no less than 50,000 euros lead the sales ranking. Towing the entire segment is Tesla which puts the Model Y and the Model 3 in the first two positions.
Chinese follows Byd Song Plus which includes four other cars in the top ten. It is not difficult to understand the impact of the price issue on Italian motorists who, according to the latest Unrae data, spend an average of around 26,000 euros for a new car. A figure which, moreover, in three years has jumped by almost 6 thousand euros precisely because of the arrival on the market of electric models.
For Italians, electricity is too expensive
Having said that to him Italian motorists they would be willing to buy an electric car, but precisely because of economic and recharging infrastructure problems, they prefer hybrid vehicles. This is the picture that emerges”Global Automotive Consumer Study 2023“, a research recently presented by Deloitte and based on a sample of over 26,000 consumers from 24 countries.
According to the study, the Italians who choose a non-rechargeable hybrid (Hev) as their next car will be the 32% of respondents, while the share of people who will opt for plug-in hybrid vehicles rises dal 20 al 24%. Disappointing forecasts forpurchase of 100% electric cars that stop at 11%.
But the question of price is not the only problem holding back Italians from buying zero-emission cars: there are also autonomy, the times of recharge, the insufficiency of infrastructure public issues, the uncertainties about domestic recharging and, lastly, the greater difficulty in organizing travel and daily movements.