Electric car sales in Europe have paused at base camp on the way to the summit. The next phase requires mass-market buyers and price is everything.
These are brave predictions given the current state of the European, and to a lesser extent, the U.S. EV market. After surging since the early 2020’s growth has suddenly slowed, with the likes of GM and Ford in the U.S. and Mercedes and Volkswagen in Europe pulling back over-ambitious plans. The early surge from 2020 was fueled at first by well-heeled early adopters and followed by corporate purchasers, often propelled by tempting tax breaks. And of course, corporate EV drivers had no say in the choice and any shortcomings compared with internal combustion engines had to be lived with. This would include poor long-distance high-speed range and an incompetent charging network.
HSBC still sees the move to EVs as inevitable, not least because of the pressure governments are bringing to bear to force the change. It expects current negatives to ease, although some would say with a degree of wishful thinking.