Yes, also Peugeot for the axe. The brand new e-308 will be €2,000 cheaper. The Allure is now available from €43,585, nicely just below the upper limit for the €2,950 purchase subsidy from the pot, which is still far from empty at more than 36 million. Swipe sign. The private individual no longer bites, not even with an average monthly salary purchase discount. Is electric too expensive? Is the market for plug-in cars already saturated? Does Jan public not feel like dirty charging cables? Is the informed vanguard waiting for solid state batteries? In any case, the market is stagnant.
Then stunt. Ford made the Mustang thousands of euros cheaper. VW made a drastic price reduction for the ID3 for the Chinese market. BYD slashed prices on all models except the discounted entry-level version of the little one. Toyota discounted the bZ4X by more than three grand as a precaution. On the Dutch VW site you can see a wide range of electric IDs with a €4,000 stock discount. Then you know. Something isn’t going well there.
It was a chain reaction. Tesla saw the Chinese coming with their huge volumes and competitive prices. Musk made a drastic decision. An eye for an eye, so sale. Then the others had to come along. You have to seriously ask yourself if they are doing the right thing. Tesla’s technique and endurance are quite unbeatable. Due to their economy, they get further than anyone else even with relatively small batteries. There is no point in making a less performing EV cheaper if it does not become a reasonable alternative to a Tesla even at the new price. You see it at Peugeot, you see it at VW. Why buy an ID3 or ID4 when you can get a Model 3 or Model Y for a little less and a little more, respectively? The e-308 is still more expensive than a Model 3 with a much longer range of 491 against 413 and twice the power of the Peug. However good that 308 may otherwise be, the buyer can count on it.
How silly if you had just bought a plug box for the full pound. The downside: almost nobody did that. That is why the price has been reduced.
That is worrisome for one more specific reason. Most manufacturers, with the exception of the profit machine Tesla, earn far too little from EVs. That doesn’t get any better with such a negative price spiral. This worsens the already unfavorable competitive position of the old players. It’s fodder for conspiracy theories. What if Musk and the equally aggressively marching Chinese side by side wage this price war to kill the backward European industry, which is staggering despite misleading profit figures?
The answer is simple, I think. Yes, they are doing that. And they are well on their way. The small entry-level model from BYD will be cheaper than the electric B-segmenters from Stellantis. From now on, the BYD Atto 3 will be well below the prices for an ID.3 or 308 and, indeed, the Model 3. You can find anything you like about its design and that corny interior, it’s not junk. Then you have an asset. That’s how scary it is. It goes from bad to worse and the fossil industry cannot make a fist.
I took a look at used car prices, always an interesting indicator of the state of the market. For just over sixty grand you have a young BMW iX xDrive40 at the BMW dealer. Lots of money? Look at what they cost new. Great car, secret love, but too small battery with that 71 kWh base package. Although that may not even be the decisive objection. Young used Mercedes EQEs with a range of I have you there are already offered for comparable prices. Super nice cars, but the people apparently don’t eat them. What I see? I see sales.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl