A massive price war has broken out in the field of e-cars, which is now also taking place in Europe. In April, the US manufacturer Tesla lowered prices for all vehicles for the second time this year. Tesla has thus opened the price war, and now other car manufacturers are following suit: According to a study by the management consultancy PwC, the average discount for Stromers in the premium segment rose by a quarter to 14 percent from June to July, reports Wirtschaftswoche.
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In the middle segment, the average discount rose by a third to eleven percent. “Only in the volume market, where the highest government purchase premiums continue to lure, have the discounts remained largely the same” at nine to ten percent, PwC announced on Friday. “In the fight for market share, car manufacturers are fighting a discount battle that is now reaching Europe,” explained the analysts. After corona lockdowns and delivery bottlenecks had caused a shortage of supply and high prices for a long time, car production is picking up again.
With a share of almost 16 percent of registrations, the Stromer are now on the threshold of the mass market. As a result, “normal market conditions now also prevail in the electronics segment, with everything that goes with it,” says PwC industry expert Felix Kuhnert. “The early adopters and conviction buyers have stocked up. Now the mainstream buyers are grabbing it, but they are applying tougher criteria in terms of product and price.”
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Rebates weigh on profit margins
In most cases, comparable combustion vehicles are only half as expensive as their Stromer counterparts. According to current calculations, Germans pay an average of almost 50,000 euros for an electric car. One reason for this is that almost half of the electric cars on offer are SUV models, which usually cost significantly more.
The rebates weighed on profit margins. In addition, the prices for lithium and other raw materials rose again. According to PwC, the German car manufacturers are being forced into a price war that they could only survive if they had a buffer in terms of costs. Stromers built in Germany are around 40 percent more expensive than the same models that are built and sold in China. Chinese car companies are also selling their Stromer in Germany around 40 percent more expensive than in China, where there have just been further price reductions.