EV Price War Starts–But Still Nobody Wants One!
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
They’re getting desperate now!
It’s no secret that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to electric car adoption is their high purchase price. And with the cost of producing electric cars still very high, manufacturers are struggling to bring prices down to a level at which many buyers can afford to transition from petrol or diesel cars to an electric equivalent.
But manufacturers are feeling the squeeze, in the UK at least, as the zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate ramps up. This legislation requires manufacturers to ensure that a certain proportion of the cars they sell in Britain are electric – and imposes penalties on them if they don’t meet those targets.
As a result, many manufacturers are starting to offer substantial discounts off the list prices of their electric cars, choosing to take the hit on their bottom line rather than face a hefty fine, in the hope of tempting buyers into choosing one over and above a petrol or diesel model.
New data released last week by What Car? magazine has revealed just how big some of these discounts are, with as much as £8,379 off the list price of some of the most popular electric models.
Steve Huntingford, the editor of What Car?, said: “Electric vehicle sales grew last year, but this was due to tax rules favouring company and fleet drivers. By contrast, the extensive discounts that we’re now seeing target private buyers.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/hybrid-electric-cars/the-best-electric-car-discounts-right-now/
Knock off eight grand, or pay a fifteen grand fine! They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place!
One of the examples given by The Telegraph is the Vauxhall Corsa:
Of course, nobody in their right mind pays RRP. Go on CarWow, and you can get £3503 off the same GS model with a petrol engine, bringing the price down to £18501:
In other words, even after a discount of £6045, the electric model is still £9534 dearer.
As usual the Telegraph commenters are much more astute then the reporter:
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
If there was one parked outside my house with the keys in the ignition and the logbook in the glove box I wouldn’t bother driving it away!
Keys? Ignition?
You would because you wouldn’t want it exploding there.
£28,000 for an electric roller skate that’ll depreciate faster than a freshly-gelded stallion? I think not.
A quick peek on Autotrader shows almost every type of prestige car available for £28,000. There’s also masses of value for those at the £18,000 price for an ICE Corsa.
These imposed Net Zero laws are simply insane. Manufacturers are in big trouble here, make no mistake.
The E U are making plans to get rid of all of the ICE cars .
This is actually worth a thread on its own .
But the idea is that they are inventing new laws to get rid of all of the current ICE cars and only allow people to buy what the politicians want , which is EVs .
https://eightify.app/summary/automotive/new-eu-directive-impact-on-repairing-older-cars
https://petersweden.substack.com/p/the-eu-wants-to-seize-your-old-car
https://www.oe-mag.co.uk/the-european-union-may-ban-repairs-on-cars-over-15-years-old-but-how/
And if Labour get in here you can be sure that they will take us back into this madness .
That’s a daft idea; it’ll only accelerate the EU’s own demise. They need to put the brakes on this nonsense.
If the EU think the angry farmers are bad, wait until they try to take the cars away from people. In Spain over half of cars are over 15yrs old, I suspect some of the eastern countries are the same given they were buying used cars from here and Germany etc to take there. It has all the hallmarks of a completely ill thought out piece of legislation that will be unworkable if it actually comes to pass.
Unless I see draft EU text to the contrary, I cannot believe this is anything other than a conspiracy theory.
For Jlt , https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52023PC0451
Very vague on purpose , because if enough people understand it then the protests would be massive . And the E U does not want to let any democracy stand in the way of its agenda , which is to stop everybody using their own cars .
Thanks for the link ITRW. I don’t see any indication that vehicles over 15 years old are to be scrapped. If you scroll down to Annex I Part A, there is a list of criteria for determining if a vehicle is end of life. Age of vehicle is not in the list – a lot of sensible criteria are.
I would like to know where this 15 year idea comes from!
I think you mean £15 000 for a battery with a £13 000 car body attached, the latter long outliving the former.
Second hand will be a new £15 000 battery with a £6 000 pound car body attached.
Hard to see why these cars aren’t selling and reselling like hot cakes.
(My numbers are indicative, not actual.)
it’s not just the cost, but sky rocketing insurance, plummeting residual values, range anxiety, time to charge, availability of charging points, grotesque tyre wear as the piles of junk are so heavy and the fact they are not “green” in the least bit. Ask the kids in the Congo who mine the cobalt and lithium so the woke West can feel virtuous just for openers.
It’s the residuals that are key. If the second-hand value is high, then buying a new car is a cash flow issue. If I have to pay a premium new for an EV and I get a discount second-hand, it’s a loss of value issue.
99% of the commenters on these types of articles are much more astute than the reporters. It’s a pity politicians don’t listen to what sensible members of the public say.
There is a massive social justice issue in play here, when are the usual social justice suspects going to speak up for the poorer tax payers who have to contribute to the tax breaks and subsidies that favour people who can afford to buy EVs and in Australia, subsidised roof panels and household batteries.?
Let’s be clear. The poor don’t pay much tax and the bottom 50% are net recipients of public services – they get more in services and benefits than they pay in. The tax burden has fallen increasingly on the wealthy. The social issue is that the less wealthy are going priced out of numerous areas of consumption, notably driving but also flying long haul and heating/cooking with gas. That is how they are being made poorer, not taxation.
Good points, I should have remembered the time when I discovered how much people in Australia had to earn they before started to pay net income tax, so many getting so much more out than they put in. And so much of the income tax paid by the people in the top bracket.
I like the idea of a flat rate to o radically simplify the system and get rid of all the parasites who live off the complexities of the system, like all highly regulated systems, designed for the regulators and the government.
We will just end up driving cars from BYD instead.
Few will buy one at any price. If you can get insurance at all, it’s sky high. Many garages have refused to repair them. Nobody has solved the problem of battery disposal. They eat up tyres and brakes like there’s no tomorrow. And they are about as green as a Jersey cow. And, as mentioned, there is the problem of fire…
Brakes actually last longer due to regenerative braking. Not that longer brake life is a buying feature worth pursuing.
But most/all of that is cancelled out by the additional weight of EVs. And EVs always have to brake the full weight, unlike ICEs which vary with petrol load.
“Brakes actually last longer due to regenerative braking.”
True, to such an extent that disc corrosion due to lack of use can be a problem. Unless the driver brakes hard enough to exceed the retardation from regeneration, the friction brakes are not used.
This has led to “one-pedal driving” becoming a popular feature.
Never underestimate the power of greenie world to come up with something amusing to choke on your Vurger….except you can’t as the vegan burger chain has gone bust. While regenerative braking will save you brake wear, the German TUV have found battery cars failing the brake test because they haven’t used the brakes enough so can’t generate the required force.
Filling a tank vs. charging a battery – no contest.
They just never got it, and they still don’t, it isn’t about cost or range or charging ….its about freedom of choice …we don’t like governments telling us what to buy
What would be my main concern? The cost obviously. The range. But perhaps the dangers of fire. Well publicised fires at car parks, individual cars catching fire. Not helped by unrelated fires such as this amongst solar panels at a Lidl warehouse demonstrating that green technology is not wholly reliable.
Solar panels catch fire at £70m Lidl distribution centre in Peterborough – CambsNews.co.uk
The point being there was an electrical fault and it took 50 firefighters to deal with it. Lots of opportunities for electrical faults with an EV.
Mind you, quite how solar panels can catch fire then burn so fiercely is a bit surprising. What is burning exactly and are any of the same materials in an EV?
A question I have often wondered about is whether having solar panels on your roof increases home insurance. It should, but does it?
Not in my experience
Make no mistake, Net Zero and electrification is designed to be so expensive and impractical that it causes impoverishment and in itself reduces anthropogenic emissions of CO2. So the expense and impracticality of bevs and the fines on ices is working as intended to force drivers off the road and reduce CO2 emissions.
PS : If it destroys the West’s car manufacturing businesses at the same time this is also a plus.
Net Zero will destroy everything included the population.
The hugely overrated Andrew Neil thinks that China is the solution to our inflation problem by selling us cheap goods including BYD cars where a whole ship load is due to arrive in Rotterdam in their own special ship. They have another 6 ships under construction – either in anticipation of sales or of one or more becoming a burnt out hulk. What the dumb Neil doesn’t understand is that making something that is a sh*t idea cheaper doesn’t make it any better.
It’s far worse than that. China will be happy to see all our industries destroyed this way. What will we be selling to China in return to pay for their goods? And what effect will this have on our military security when all our industries are closed down?
What do you think we sell now? What do you sell to Tesco to allow you to buy from Tesco?
Andrew Neil is pointing out that the European car industry may be done for. The Telegraph writer is really behind the curve.
Neil like so many commentators, confuses inflation and higher prices. Inflation is a decrease in the value of money, which manifests in higher prices. Higher prices caused by supply and demand or government intervention, are just higher prices. Inflation is a practical problem, higher prices an economic problem.
What Andrew Neil, not alone, doesn’t understand is that trade is two way. The Chinese won’t give us their cars, they will exchange them for something we produce that they want and value.
By the time we are Net Zeroid and decarbonised we won’t be producing much to offer in exchange to anybody.
Poor Countries are poor because they consume little because they produce little so they can buy little produced domestically and buy virtually nothing produced abroad because they cannot offer exports to exchange for imports.
Most poor Countries are de facto Net Zero and decarbonised because they were never Net Plus and carbonised.
Cut to the chase. Simply vote Reform and ditch the Nut Zero . You know it makes sense.
As I understand it, unless Reforms has changed its policy, it wants to delay Net Zero not ditch it, as they accept there is a climate crisis which needs to be solved, but (like St Augustine) not just yet.
Meanwhile in true free market, conservative tradition it wants to nationalise energy companies, the railways and throw heaps and heaps more cash at ‘our’ NHS.
Both Tice and Farage were behind the mRNA safe & effective snake oil and how important it was for everybody to be dosed with it.
I’m not seeing the actual reform that Reform says it will bring.
And there are two other aspects currently being ignored.
Regardless of discounts, BEV’s have a significant number of problems to overcome- the lack of charge points/stations is serious; the 40-60% drive off forecourt depreciation is serious; the lack of range, especially in winter is serious, but the killer is year 2 insurance- this is when all common sense goes straight out of the window, coupled with minor repairs costing significantly more than ICE vehicle repairs- don’t ask about the price of a new battery pack, they will not tell you- best guess from industry experts – between £18,000 and £34,000 depending on make and model – so let’s look at a simple comparison – Skoda SE L 1585 ICE @ £24,000, BEV £38,000, drive off forecourt £20,000 v £19,000 – range on full tank/charge 468 v 285, insurance £285 v £would not quote. So, not good value, no range, too expensive to insure but ideal for Company cars as 99% of CC drivers don’t give a damn about how they drive.
As a result, many manufacturers are starting to offer substantial discounts off the list prices of their electric cars, as they finish up their plans to move to other countries.
Fixed it. The commies have a static view of the world. The decadent twerps in charge of UK think if the make laws to force EVs on everyone, everyone will buy EVs. Or make manufacturers make them, OR ELSE
The funny thing is, YOU DON’T OWN YOUR CAR COMPANIES!
Mercedes, Volkswagen, Tata, Geely, SAIC, BMW, and Stellantis do.
They’ll move to Blythewood, Greer, Vance, etc. in the US, WHERE THEY ALREADY ARE, and to other industrial nations. Mexico, Brazil, Argentina. Tata to India – how hard could that be? Stellantis to Torino and Maranello.
manufacturers are struggling to bring prices down to a level at which many buyers can afford to transition from petrol or diesel cars to an electric equivalent
Nah. They are leaving. They don’t play ‘struggling.’
You are sofa king dead.
This is discounting cars already made. If they can’t sell those, they will stop making new ones. Governments are forcing manufacturers out of business well before their products are not wanted and well before the replacement products are in people’s cost range, whilst making it extremely difficult/unattractive for new businesses that could employ people to set up. That combination will produce a Depression with a drastic loss of taxation and a drastic increase in welfare costs. It’s inevitable and yet virtually all politicians in the West pursue it.
The commodities market is going to help with the cost of batteries: lithium, nickel and cobalt are down by 80, 60 and 40% respectively. Apparently this is due to overcapacity as demand has not grown as expected. That said, boom-and-bust is endemic in that business.
I think demand from the car industry is shrinking, not growing. The battery storage mob don’t seem to be taking up the slack either.
I gather that in China – a huge car market at 25mil+ units annually, there are dozens of EV car mfrs – most of which will go bust fairly soon as the dominant few take over that market. These few will then be targeting the world’s car markets with well made, cheap and attractive models (mostly copies of Western ones) with which the West’s legacy mfrs will not be able to compete. China has 80% of the world’s battery manufacture already and largely controls the global supplies of the essential metals etc. EV cars already have 50% of the Chinese market and growing. Those successful few car makers left in China will have a safe, domestic market of 12<20 million units pa and will use their economies of scale to offer cars no Western makers can compete with. We can’t say we weren’t warned…. And Western Gov’ts are playing into China’s hands with their EV mandates and ‘nett zero’ dreams.
We’re doomed, I tell you!
Chinese manufacturers of EVs have had their own problems this past year. Nio had to slash prices to try and move stock and dropped its free 4 battery swap out scheme.
Then in June 2023 The Chinese Government had to step in and extend tax breaks to 2027 at a cost of £56.9bn.
Other manufacturers have also had problems in moving stock and that is probably why the Chinese are now aggressively moving into exports.
Quite agree, DA. As I noted above, the majority of present-day EV Mfrs in China are predicted to go pop over the next year or two. But China will still completely dominate the future EV marketplace. Job done!
News from the US is that both Rivian and Lucid have seen their values tumble as analysts react to the shrinking demand for battery vehicles by marking them down.
There is a ray of sunshine as one of the few growth industries in Germany is car theft but you are very unlikely to have your battery car stolen as thieves only steal things they can sell. However to contrast that it seems that owning a Tesla in Berlin has its risks as econutters are setting them on fire as a protest for something or other.
Keep seeing signs on delivery vans that say ‘Zero emission electric vehicle’ This seems to be a distortion of the truth to me. It infers that on any one day, none of the Grid electricity comes from gas, coal or woodchips. Let me guess that on an average UK day we use 40%gas, 5% coal and 10% woodchips – I expect to be corrected on this.
Obviously the manufacturing processes emits large quantities of CO2 but even more comes when the vehicle is running. If you want a ‘zero emmision vehicle’ then it would be better if you don’t buy one, even if it does come from China!
Mercedes announces, “We were just kidding.”
https://www.breitbart.com/pre-viral/2024/02/25/mercedes-benz-scraps-plans-to-make-only-electric-vehicles-due-to-market-conditions/
Our local VW dealer has a signposted *quarantine zone for electric vehicles*, wherein the stupid battery cars are parked as far away from their saleable stock as possible. Being a VW dealer, this spot happens to be the corner of their yard that is closest to the road.
Nope, if they were free, I wouldn’t have one, for well documented reasons