Car market – the best is yet to come

New car sales in Europe are falling. A little, but you can say – always. The electric cars supported by the governments of several countries with various subsidies are not becoming more popular either. Why?

In connection with our competition “Latvijas e-auto”, I already wrote that the offer of small but relatively cheap models is very small. In the aforementioned competition, for example, only one application was submitted – “GWM Ora”. But it is clear that improvements are expected in this area.

Information has appeared in the German media that “Volkswagen” will reduce the price of the electric hatchback “ID.3”, and very much. Time had to come to the edge of the abyss for “Volkswagen” to change its attitude towards pricing policy in Europe as well.

Customers were not without reason angry that the “VW” offer does not have electric cars at an affordable price, since the cheapest model of the ID family, the already mentioned “ID.3”, costs close on 37,000 euros in Germany so far.

And that looked pretty good too, because in December 2022 this electric mobility offering from “Volkswagen” had a starting price of 44,000 euros in the configuration.

According to “Automobilwoche” information, the situation should change on October 1 (so yesterday), when the price of the basic “Pure” version of the “ID.3” was promised to be reduced to 33,330 euros. This, with the manufacturer’s subsidy of 3,570 euros, allows the price of the electric hatchback to be pushed below the 30,000-euro mark.

The new manager of Volkswagen’s sales department, Martins Zander, has stated that the company has been working diligently to reduce internal costs. The manager emphasized that the goal is to encourage as many customers as possible to switch to an electric “Volkswagen” and attractive starting prices play an important role in this.

We only need to add that this price for the particular model will be valid until the end of the year – unless there are other orders.

Good news. Here’s another one. It is clear that slow cost is the biggest obstacle to the mass penetration of electric cars into households. I also don’t want to spend an hour or more shivering in a cage at a so called fast charging place! I will wait for the revolution in battery technology. And here’s the news. “General Motors” and “CATL” have presented a collaboration – battery “6C”. A new LFP (“lithium iron phosphate”) device can be charged for 200 km in five minutes.