Last summer, it became known about Volkswagen’s intentions to buy a 5% stake in the Chinese automaker XPeng and establish a joint production of at least two electric vehicle models for the local market. Now the European auto giant is announcing the need to find partners in Europe to produce electric vehicles costing 25,000 euros. A decision should be made this year.
At a press conference in Berlin, as noted by the Financial Times, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume said that this year the concern will have to decide on a plan to find a partner to produce an electric car costing less than 25,000 euros. The company's chief financial officer, Arno Antlitz, added that it is difficult to make money in this price segment. The new platform should be used by multiple manufacturers to spread costs across as many products as possible.
Currently, electric cars in Europe cost an average of €15,000 more than ICE equivalents, and reducing this difference is needed not only to stimulate demand for electric cars, but also to protect local automakers from the expansion of Chinese competitors. There are currently very few electric vehicles on the European market costing less than 30,000 euros, and largely because of this, the demand for cars with this type of power plant has slowed down here.
Previously, the head of Volkswagen had already stated that the company would not be able to produce an electric car costing 20,000 euros before the end of the decade due to the difficulty of solving this problem from an economic point of view. About 40% of the cost of an electric vehicle is determined by the traction battery. European automakers have extensive experience in mutual cooperation in the production of commercial vans and subcompact compact cars. In the latter segment, it is difficult to make a decent profit even when using internal combustion engines, so European companies will inevitably come to this scheme in the coming years. At least Renault last month already admitted to holding talks with Volkswagen about jointly developing an inexpensive electric car. The French manufacturer's Dacia subsidiary is ready to import a budget Spring electric car from China, which will cost £15,000 in the UK. It is not yet possible to launch the production of electric vehicles with such a price tag in Europe.
Volkswagen itself still expects to introduce the ID.2 electric car next year, costing about 25,000 euros. Volkswagen's electric vehicle sales are set to slow from 15% to 5% this year, so the company desperately needs more affordable electric vehicles in Europe. Last year, electric vehicles made up 8.3% of Volkswagen's product range. European authorities intend to introduce increased customs duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles in order to increase the competitiveness of European products, but this will not solve the problem of increasing the availability of electric vehicles.
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