Advertisement for Tesla’s electric cars at an artificial intelligence conference in Shanghai last July. LONG WEI / Feature China/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Despite the price war for electric cars, many buyers in Germany are still afraid of the high acquisition costs.
In China, some models from Tesla or BYD are now cheaper than comparable combustion engines from Mercedes and BMW, according to a new analysis by Bloomberg.
The fact that the Stromer are doing so well in the competition is not only due to tax advantages when buying electric cars.
Electric cars have long been the norm on German roads. But the Stromer have not yet conquered the mass market. Despite the price war instigated by Tesla, many buyers cannot or do not want to afford a vehicle with an electric drive. Because electric cars are usually more expensive to buy than comparable petrol engines.
That seems to be changing in China, as David Fickling of Bloomberg analyzed. He speaks of a “shift in the competitive position” of battery-powered vehicles. In some cases, electric cars in China are already cheaper than combustion engines, as Fickling shows using the example of premium mid-range sedans.
read too
The CFO of Tesla was traded as the successor to Elon Musk – now he is leaving the company
After massive price reductions, Tesla’s Model 3 is now available for less money than BMW’s 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz’s C-Class. Previously, the car from the US manufacturer was twice as expensive as the comparable models from Germany. According to Fickling, the situation is similar for compact sedans: The electric Dolphin from up-and-coming producer BYD costs the equivalent of around 630 euros less than the Sagitar, the Chinese sister model of the Jetta from Volkswagen.
Fickling explains the low prices on the one hand with a tax advantage. A sales tax of ten percent is normally payable on new cars in China. So far, Stromer have been exempt from this. Since the sales of electric vehicles, which were massively pushed by the state, have recently weakened, China has recently extended this regulation until 2027. According to an estimate by Bloomberg, smaller e-cars in China will be priced at the price level of petrol-powered vehicles by 2025, even without this subsidy.
read too
“Greed”, “destruction of capital”, “full throttle against the wall”: Mercedes dealers calculate with the luxury strategy of CEO Ola Källenius
At the same time, Fickling assumes that falling battery costs will depress the prices of electric cars. The price of Chinese lithium carbonate has halved since the beginning of the year, he writes. Fickling reckons this will reduce the cost of cathode material, which accounts for half the price of a battery pack.
Fu