“An ideological approach to electric cars only ends up punishing consumers.” This time it was none other than to attack the supporters of the green transition in an unreasonably tight timeframe Akio Toyoda, chairman of the board of directors of Toyota, car manufacturer number 1 in the world. ed a Bruxelles they should feel their ears ringing given the recent demagogic and anti-industrial decisions on emissions from heavy vehicles, confirmation of the ban on the sale of diesel and petrol cars from 2035, and no to biofuels.
But Toyoda, speaking at the opening of the Japan Mobility Show he went further, putting, as they say, the finger in the wound. “The decline in demand for electric cars is proof that the plug is not the only way for the future of the automotive industry – stated Mr. Toyota bluntly – And people are finally starting to see things as they are”. “There are many ways to climb the mountain of CO2 neutrality he concluded, – swithout making people suffer normal people who use the cars every day”.
The big flop of the green on wheels
Effectively, from the United States to Europethe sale of electric cars in recent months has been going worse than expected ((in the EU only + 14% but with countries like Italy around 3%). Even in China, the home of plug-in cars, in recent months registrations have been half compared to the previous year. And all the analysis forecasts for 2024 paint a further one decline in demand. It is no coincidence that in recent weeks more than one manufacturer has reported growth “below expectations” and has retraced its steps in its electric development plans.
The houses are backtracking
The latest news, in chronological order, is that Honda e General Motors they decided to tear up the partnership agreement for the development of an “affordable” battery-powered car. The centerpiece of the agreement was the design of compact battery-powered crossovers which, using the platform and Ultium batteries of the Detroit giant, should have arrived on the market in 2027 at prices below 30 thousand dollars. The two companies thought they would produce and sell millions of units, a goal today judged to be a mirage. “We are taking immediate steps to improve the profitability of our electric vehicle portfolio and adapt to the short-term growth slowdown,” he admitted GM CEO Mary Barra. Not only. The decision to postpone the start of production of the battery-powered variants of the Chevrolet Silverado and Gmc Sierra pick-ups by a year should also be seen from this perspective.
Even at home Ford we are having second thoughts. The American group has the goal of producing 600 thousand electric cars has been postponed by a year in 2023, underlining that it cannot predict reaching the 2 million plug-in cars initially set for 2026. It was therefore decided to postpone production of the new Explorer in Cologne and cut work shifts in Dearborn. Also there LG Energy Solution, large battery manufacturer and partner of Ford has raised the alarm: “Demand for electric vehicles could be lower than expected next year.”
If you switch to Volkswagen the situation is the same.” What is starting to be missing are orders for the next few months – he admitted the commercial manager of the German company, Hildegard Wortmann talking about “market trend below expectations“. Words that translated into the first job cuts among Emden, Zwickau and Dresden. Same goes for the sister Audi that he decided to postpone production of the Q4 e-tron. Remaining in the premium segment, the heartfelt forecast of the Mercedes-Benz. Explaining the data from the latest quarterly, the Stuttgart company speaks of “subdued market context, particularly in the electric vehicle segment.” Even the undisputed champion of electric, Elon Musk , sent strong negative signals, commenting on the lower-than-expected results of Tesla of the last quarter. “Buying an electric car for consumers is becoming increasingly difficult – said Musk – and we must take note of this”. Also Stellar is partly reviewing the “all electric now” strategy, putting it back into production the endothermic version (which had been cancelled) of two flagship models orvvero la 500X.
Without incentives, electricity causes blackouts
The German case shows how much they are public support is needed to keep the electric car alive. There end of company incentives in fact, it caused registrations in Germany to collapse by 28.6% compared to the previous year. But in September the drop was 63% on the previous month. In the USA the administration Biden she came to give away up to $7,500 discount to motorists who switch to electric cars. But even there sales are growing but not taking off. Then there are countries that snub “the plug” even in the presence of strong incentives. AND’ the Italian case where in 2023, compared to a little treasure for the endothermic completely consumed by motorists, there are green incentives, snubbed by motorists, still in the state coffers. And for 2024? The forecasts are not so rosy the government is thinking of diverting the funds for electric on diesel and petrol models.