Mercedes-Benz has said the electric car market is “brutal” for carmakers as heavy competition forces them to cut prices., with the US further behind, but the rush of new launches is putting pressure on European manufacturers in particular, who are struggling to compete with cheap models coming from China.
Wilhelm said some manufacturers were pricing battery electric vehicles similarly to petrol variants despite higher costs of production, amid “intense price competition”. “I can hardly imagine the current status quo is fully sustainable for everybody,” he added. Barbara Bergmeier, JLR’s executive director of industrial operations, said the factory would build electric Defenders “this decade”..
Jim Rowan, Volvo’s chief executive, said the company had not “got involved in price discounting”, adding: “Most of that indiscipline has been in the mass market sector.”