Volkswagen does not want to participate in the price war started by Tesla

While many manufacturers have decided to join Tesla’s game by lowering the price of their electric cars, that’s not the case with Volkswagen. The German company is not alone.

Price parity between thermal and electric cars is still far from being achieved, especially due to the cost of raw materials needed for batteries. As the price of lithium increases, the trend will be higher, especially as demand becomes stronger. In December, the sale of electric cars in France alone exceeded the sales of diesel.

Sudden fall

Electric cars are therefore quite expensive, waiting for the rise of solid-state batteries, which could lower prices. However, it seems that there is room for maneuver, as Tesla has proven. The American company really created a real tsunami by dropping the prices of the Model 3 and Model Y to $13,000 overnight. A decline that follows a worrying situation in China as well as the United States.

And it had a bombshell effect that made several manufacturers reconsider their strategy. We’re especially thinking of Xpeng, which has slashed the prices of the P5, P7 and G3. A few days later, it was the turn of Vietnamese brand VinFast, which announced promotional operations without giving further details.

Finally, the American company Lucid recently reduced the price of its Air sedan only for customers of the lease offer. It is enough to hope to stay in the race with Tesla, which will break the sales record by delivering more than one million vehicles in 2022. Finally, yesterday Ford announced that it is dropping the prices of the Mustang Mach-E in the US. A surprising decision when the brand does not plan to reduce prices at all, but to increase its profits.

But not all manufacturers are ready for this sudden price war. And especially not Volkswagen. In an interview with a German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine SonntagszeitungCEO of the brand, Olivier Blume, confirmed thisNo cuts were currently on the agenda.

Not all are involved

The leader claims “Have a clear pricing strategy and focus on reliability. We are confident in the strength of our products and brands“. A subtle pike sent at Elon Musk’s brand? Anyway, Volkswagen, whose electric range currently consists of the ID.3, ID.4, ID.5 and ID, doesn’t have any. Buzz won’t benefit from any price cuts.

But the Wolfsburg company is not the only company that refuses to deal with this area. as explained Automotive Newseven for Porsche, which plans to do soincrease prices by 6% according to a spokesman. The automaker also plans to launch a premium electric SUV priced above the Cayenne. Already last July, the brand claimed that it would be easier to increase its profitability thanks to electric cars.

Renault is also opposed to a price-cutting strategy, although its CEO Luca de Meo is in favor of reducing the size of batteries to offer cheaper cars in the future. However, there is no reason to reduce the number of cars already on the market. Fabrice Cambolive, the new general manager of the Almaz brand, says, “if you drop sales prices by 10% or more in a week, it hurts residual values ​​and hurts existing customers.“.

A phenomenon that clearly affects Tesla owners, the price of used models has dropped dramatically recently. However, Renault is not open to a price revaluation, but its leader confirms that “prices of electric vehicles are predicted to be closely scrutinized“.

Want to join a community of enthusiasts? Welcome to our Discord, a place of mutual help and passion around technology.