US carmakers are struggling to sell electric vehicles (EVs) because its products are inferior, while the Chinese market powers ahead, according to one of the world’s biggest battery materials manufacturers. Mathias Miedreich, chief executive of Umicore, said sales of Chinese electric cars were surging in contrast to the US due to better performance and affordability. “They are simply good cars and people buy them,” he said in an interview, referring to Chinese vehicles.
“The American ones seem to struggle to bring good electric vehicles.” The boss of the Belgian producer of cathode materials for EV batteries, which counts Volkswagen, BMW and China’s Envision AESC among its customers, added that US carmakers were also pulling back on factory expansion plans for electric vehicles because of weak demand