According to a market study by the management consultancy PwC, the proportion of fully electric vehicles worldwide rose to 17 percent in the second quarter, and even to 50 percent for plug-in hybrids. The VW Group, BMW and Mercedes-Benz had sold a total of 246,000 battery cars and around 370,000 plug-in hybrids in the first half of the year. According to PwC, the market for fully electric cars is currently still dominated by Chinese and US American manufacturers.
According to PwC, by far the greatest demand for fully electric electric vehicles is in China: 980,000 e-cars and 212,000 plug-in hybrids were registered there in the first half of the year. In the second quarter, the proportion of purely battery-powered vehicles rose to over 11 percent and was ahead of the European core markets with 8 percent.
“In a global comparison, 58 percent of e-car purchases in this period came from the Chinese market,” wrote the industry experts. The People’s Republic is setting the course for e-mobility in order to “position itself as one of the leading high-tech nations and at the same time improve the quality of life of its own citizens by reducing environmental pollution”.
In Germany With 84,000 new registrations in the second quarter, the Stromer almost caught up with the plug-in hybrids with a good 85,000 new registrations. Together, their market share in the first half of the year was 23 percent. PwC industry expert Felix Kuhnert said that the growing range of products offered by manufacturers and the state purchase premiums for e-cars and charging boxes are important levers.
In the USA on the other hand, Stromer and plug-in hybrids combined only made up 3 percent. The President’s Joe Biden However, planned incentives, increasing environmental awareness and technical advances could change that.
In view of the market ramp-up in almost all core markets, delivery problems for chips and batteries would come at an inopportune time, said Pwc strategy consultant Jörn Neuhausen. In addition, the renewable power sources would have to be expanded quickly in order to actually exploit the advantage in terms of CO2 emissions compared to conventional drives.
A lack of chips slows down discounts – longer delivery times, higher net prices
The much-cited lack of chips, however, also has an impact on prices: Since new cars ready for sale are becoming a scarce commodity on the German market, there are hardly any reasons for retailers and manufacturers to set additional purchase incentives, says expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer in the latest discount study of his Duisburg-based company Car Institute. “The German car market is suffering from the semiconductor crisis and new car buyers have to live with long delivery times and higher net prices.”
The discounts offered on Internet platforms for self-configured new vehicles decreased in July compared to the previous month, as the institute reported. There was also a decline in the number of car subscriptions on offer, a comparatively new form of distribution in which customers only rent their cars for a few months, including insurance. According to Dudenhöffer, better times for those interested in new cars will only begin in nine to twelve months.