Electric cars: brands hostile to the price cut launched by Tesla

It’s not a red alert, but everyone is on the alert. The sharp drop in the price of certain Tesla models, with a discount of up to 20%, has only been followed by a limited number of manufacturers, but now a breach has been opened that could change the game of the market. of the electric car.

Read also: At Tesla, a sudden drop in car prices

So far, only Ford, the American-Saudi company Lucid and the new Vietnamese brand VinFast have followed in the footsteps of Tesla in the United States. XPeng, which is going through a difficult period, is almost the only one to have done the same on the Chinese market. In Europe, everyone is sticking to their positions. Oliver Blume, the new boss of the Volkswagen group, brushed aside the hypothesis of a downward revision of its prices.

“We have a clear pricing strategy and we focus on reliability. We are confident in the strength of our products and our brands”he assured, on January 28, to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. The other brands that market electric models – including the Koreans Hyundai and Kia, or the very enterprising Chinese MG – are rejecting such an eventuality. ” For the moment “they add cautiously.

Value rather than volume

Tesla has scheduled the revision of its prices knowing that it can count on the restart of its Shanghai plant, now able to produce 20,000 vehicles weekly, and on the ramp-up of that of Berlin, with a sufficient supply of semi-trailers. -drivers. For its part, Ford plans to increase production of the Mustang Mach-E from 77,000 units in 2022 to 130,000 in 2023, but the United States will be served first.

Under these conditions, the brand with the blue oval does not plan to grant the slightest discount in Europe. “Why lower the price of a model that we have so much difficulty delivering to our customers? »essentially explains the manufacturer, who recalls that this car, whose prices have soared in recent months, imposes in France a waiting period of more than six months.

“I think starting a price war on electric cars right now when we’re just starting to produce them is not the best thing that could happen to the auto industry.”estimated Tuesday, January 31 Luca de Meo, boss of Renault, during his first speech as new president of the Association of European Automobile Manufacturers.

You have 46.21% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.