TORINO – After Renault’s refusal to list Ampere on the stock exchange, the company created for the development of electric vehicles, even the German Volkswagen, the second largest group in the world behind the Japanese Toyota, would be ready to review its plans. In particular, the Wolfsburg house could decide to stop the IPO plans for the division that deals with batteries, PowerCo. An indiscretion from Automotive News.
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Electric cars, the shock does not arrive
These are two revealing clues a 2024 that promises to be difficult for the electric car segment. Clues that would represent all the critical issues of the ongoing transition, a transition that in Europe has a set deadline: 2035, the year in which, in fact, traditional engines that produce CO2 will be banned. Choices that investors seem to reward. However, current market conditions – explained Renault CEO Luca de Meo – do not allow the listing process to be carried forward and to “best satisfy the interests of the Renault group, its shareholders and Ampere”. And in Paris the stock exchange rewarded the French company’s stock.
For BYD it is a hunt for raw materials and lithium by Diego Longhin 15 January 2024
Then there is a third clue that should not be underestimated, also because it concerns the Chinese giant BYD. The Shenzhen group’s profits fell short of analysts’ expectations as auto demand weakened in late 2023, a quarter in which it sold 526,409 vehicles, surpassing Tesla globally for the first time. Preliminary net profit rose about 75% year-on-year to between $4 billion and $4.5 billion, while market expectations were slightly higher. And the effects on BYD shares, which lost 4%, were felt.
Auto, Renault renounces the listing of Ampere: the IPO of the electric vehicle subsidiary is skipped 29 January 2024
But there will be no going back
Be careful though, anyone who thinks of going back is wrong. Putting together 37 car manufacturers, planned global electric investments reach, according to a calculation made by Reuters at the beginning of 2023, 1.2 trillion dollars. An important figure. There is no doubt that electric represents and, above all, will represent one of the legs of the sector. Consumer demand for electric vehicles is growing around the world. But the adoption of electric vehicles isn’t happening as quickly or as profitably as expected. Second AutoForecast Solutions, global electric vehicle production is expected to triple by 2030 to 33.4 million vehicles, about a third of total production. And much of this growth will come in China, where prices have already fallen.
Cars, the battle for electric. China attacks Europe. And Tesla prepares an “economical” model January 24, 2024
The industry, between the price war triggered by Tesla and carried out by other groups such as Byd itself, shows concerns about the profitability of the sector. And so the groups rethink their strategies. Electric vehicles are growing less than expected in the United States, where GM and Ford have revised their plans, and also in Europe, where at a political level the choice was clear. However, registrations of battery-only models in 2024 will not be that different from 2023, according to forecasts: 1,899,700 cars sold in 2023 with the estimate of rising to only 1,935,000 units at the end of 2024. In a recent survey among car manufacturer managers, signed by KPMG, it emerges that confidence in the development of electric vehicles is declining in both the US and the EU, and is only growing in China. The experiment Electric cars, social leasing relaunches sales. In France it sold out in less than a month. This is why by Antonio Calitri 30 January 2024
The European situation can also be dictated by the German situation: in December there was a 23% reduction in registrations in Germany due to the end of incentives. The forecasts in Europe are fluctuating. After a substantial stagnation in 2024, the market, if the impact of prices is reduced – today an electric car costs around 30% more than a traditional one – the scenario should change. Second Matt Schmidt di Schmidt Automotive Researchsales of electric vehicles in Europe could rise to 2.6 million (20% of the total) in 2025, rising to 9.2 million (65%) by 2030. Per analysts from the British Jefferies Group at the 2030 target, registrations, however, will not exceed 8.9 million in 2030, well below forecasts. Unstable estimates that do not reassure manufacturing companies. A situation that brings to mind the words of Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, which also confirms itself as the largest automotive group in the world for 2023: “Battery electric vehicles will reach, at most, 30% of the market share, while the rest will be occupied by hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells and combustion cars” and underlining that “it is the customers and not the regulations or politics having to make this decision.”