The German market has now turned into an arena for manufacturers, who are offering increasingly large discounts in the fight for buyers, with electric vehicle dealers standing out in particular.
The German publication Autobild writes that this happens because the competition between manufacturers is becoming more and more fierce, and adds that after Duisburg CAR Center Automotive Research according to the institute’s calculations, the most generous in September was the Seat subsidiary Cupra, which applied a 32.1 percent discount to its electric model Born, so the technical twin of the Volkswagen ID.3 is currently available for approximately 26,000 euros.
The manufacturer’s discount on the Škoda Enyaq increased by 2.1 percent to a total of 23.8 percent, while the Dacia Spring is available at a 21.4 percent discount. According to the observations of CAR experts, the discounts almost do not affect cars with internal combustion engines, focusing only on the electric car segment.
In September, producers on average increased their discounts to 9.9 percent from the original price, which is 0.4 percent higher than in August. This trend is expected to continue in the next few months, with a similar offer from Tesla.
Discounts are different in different segments of electric cars, for example, it currently reaches 13.8 percent for BEV Premium, 11.1 percent in the middle segment, but the most drastic changes can be seen in the so-called Volume market (the largest outlet) in the sector where the promised reduction of premiums at the turn of 2023/24 is already felt. Thus, the discount on Volkswagen ID.3 has reached 20.5 percent, Smart Fortwo tempts with 21.8 percent, and Fiat 500 e offers even 26 percent.
CAR claims that the battle for the buyer started in China and was initiated by Tesla, which forced the German automakers to follow. At the same time, demand is falling, so Tesla, which has produced much more than it has been able to sell in the last 15 months, is no longer able to sell its products in China, even with significant discounts. It is natural that the price war is moving to Europe, moreover, if until relatively recently car showrooms were empty and delivery times were long, now the backlog of orders has been processed, most models are back in stock, but customers are hesitating to buy, referring to the coronavirus, the war and high inflation.
The price reduction in Germany started at the beginning of 2023: Tesla Model Y was 16,100 euros cheaper in January than in December 2022, Tesla Model 3 was 12,678 euros cheaper.
Meanwhile, more and more Chinese manufacturers are entering the German market, offering attractive prices. The new MG4 is around €6,000 cheaper than its German rival, the VW ID.3. The compact Chinese, after deducting the premium, is already available for the not-so-cosmic 25,000 euros. And the result is visible in the statistics – the MG4 is already the seventh most popular model in the four most important EU markets: Germany, France, Italy and Spain, ahead of the VW ID.3 and the Audi Q4 e-tron.
Already in 2022, MG sold 15,684 cars (+ 484 percent) on the German market, which is significantly more than the ability of well-known brands such as Jaguar or Honda (which have only one electric car model in their range).
Meanwhile, MG’s parent company SAIC has become China’s largest automotive company, producing around 5.3 million vehicles in 2022. For comparison, VW sold 8.26 million cars worldwide across all its brands.
Tesla also operates equally successfully in the German market, so the positions of German automakers are threatened. This is also confirmed by automotive industry expert and CAR professor Ferdinand Dudenhofer, stating that in the German market, Tesla already gained a 23 percent market share in the electric car sector in January, but it is likely to reach 30 percent or more in the next 36 months. In the words of the professor, “The electric car is being “Teslarized”, and the only ones who strongly oppose it at the moment are the Chinese.
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2023-10-22 04:35:29
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