Volkswagen: ‘Growth of European EV demand slowing down due to high electricity prices’

Contrary to what is happening in the North American car market, the growth of demand for electric cars in Europe has slowed down in recent months. Thomas Schmall, director of the parts division of Volkswagen, sees this. According to him, this is due to the increased electricity prices in Europe. Growth in the United States has not declined, which is also due to the relatively generous financial incentives for the purchase of an (American-built) electric car.

Due to their current purchase prices, fully electric cars are not yet available for a large part of the market. Now that the high electricity prices add extra costs to produce and actually use an electric car, Volkswagen is seeing growth in European demand slowing down. The director does not say how much the demand for electric cars from Volkswagen is stagnating. Over the past year as a whole, the market share of the electric car in the main European markets compared to cars with a combustion engine has in any case still grown considerably.

Schmall also says that Volkswagen is busy investigating the possibilities for cheaper batteries. They should not only be more affordable, but also smaller. He also wonders whether there would be a market for electric cars with a smaller range. With a considerably smaller battery, they could be much cheaper than the cars in the current EV range. He indicates that the average European customer travels an average of 40 km per day and therefore partly questions the usefulness of cars with a range of 500 km.

Do the increased energy prices also make you doubt about the possible purchase of an electric car? Or do you see yourself purchasing a significantly cheaper EV with a limited range? Let me know in the comments.