EU car market: Tesla continues to slip-VW in the upswing

The US electric car manufacturer Tesla cannot continue to use the upswing at the European electric market market. In April it set another bitter damper for the company of the controversial company boss Elon Musk. The new registrations in the European Union crashed again, this time by more than half, as can be seen from data from the European Manufacturer Association ACEA. After the first four months of the year, Tesla has to cope with a minus of over 46 percent to only 41,677 cars.

The EU car market as a whole has been on the spot this year, but it is particularly attracted to the electric cars in the previous year. In the first four months, 15.3 percent of new registrations in the EU accounted for pure battery cars, a year earlier it was only 12 percent. In quantities, growth was over a quarter.

Tesla is increasingly under pressure in a market for which the controversial entrepreneur Musk with the so -called Gigafabrik in Grünheide opened his tents at the gates of Berlin and invested billions. Not only now Volkswagen is going to tour with its electric cars and is driving Tesla for miles – the Wolfsburg -based company was able to double the deliveries of pure electric vehicles in Europe in the first quarter.

The Chinese electrical market leader BYD (“Build Your Dreams”) is also sitting Musk on the neck-even more: He has now overtaken it in Europe with pure electric drives (BEV-Battery Electric Vehicles). According to data from Jato Dynamics’s market researchers, the time had come for the first time in April.

In the numbers of Jato – the 28 countries, instead of just the EU – BYD landed in April with 7231 cars from Tesla with 7165 cars. Jato analyst Felipe Munoz spoke of a “turning point” for the European car market despite the low advantage, especially since Tesla has been leading the market for years and BYD really got started late.

BYD is currently using dealerships and sales to car rental companies, as data from the Federal Motor Transport Office for Germany show, the largest car market in the EU. In the first four months, just under 12 percent went to private owners from 2791 newly approved BYD models.

Sales to companies in Germany generally accounts for the lion’s share of the approvals for other car builders. However, the proportion of private buyers at BYD is very low: Mercedes, for example, has almost 37 percent, the VW car brand has around 26 percent.

In general, BYD has so far been at a low level in Germany with its sales. Other providers like NIO and Xpeng are no different. As industry analyst Matthias Schmidt explains from Schmidt Automotive Research, the Chinese manufacturers as a whole initially have primarily apart from Great Britain, Spain and Italy – and also drive well with this strategy.

In the UK, because of the not so great domestic competition, it is a easier to find a place in the market for newcomers. This is also evident in historical data of the market, says expert Schmidt. And in Spain and Italy, cheap cars are more well received by the price -conscious buyers there anyway, explains the specialist. In Western Europe, almost every 20th new car was a Chinese in the first quarter, he analyzes. This is an almost twice as high market share as two years ago.

However, the tariffs from Brussels against imported electric cars from the People’s Republic drove the providers from Far East into the parade. The EU Commission thought unfair cheap competition through subsidies from Beijing and raised punitive tariffs last year that vary depending on the manufacturer. The Chinese make a virtue of it: According to Schmidt, two of three cars of Chinese manufacturers now have at least one plug-in drive, i.e. contain a combustion engine. So they do not fall under the elevated tariffs.

The Asians also want to progress with the executors. BYD presented its dolphin surf electrical car last week – a car at an introductory price of 19,990 euros. For a long time, for example, politicians and, last but not least, buyers have been demanding cheaper electric cars so that electromobility also spreads to normal consumers. The cheap small car counterpart “ID.EVERY1” in this price range announced by VW should not come onto the market until 2027.

German manufacturers benefit from their good reputation in terms of quality on their home market and abroad. In a recent survey on behalf of the management consultancy BearingPoint in the USA, China, France and Germany, the German brands are in each of the four markets in terms of trust in the quality.

“This will certainly also help that customers are not sure whether the manufacturer will still exist in a few years and whether they still have a contact person for service and repairs,” says Manuel Schuler, Global Head of Automotive at BearingPoint. Her good image gives the German manufacturers a certain postponement in the competition with the challengers from China, “says Schuler.

BYD also comes to the German market at a high speed, said BYD top manager Stella Li recently in the ZDF interview. She announced further sales increases in the coming months – and also focuses on the concern of many German drivers: the service after the purchase. The price is a relevant criterion. “But the service afterwards is also very important. We are working on offering more service workshops, we also work with third parties,” she said.

In Hungary and Turkey, the electric author gate is investing in its own production facilities. “Like other companies, we are open to invest elsewhere, even in Western Europe.” In the case of Germany, however, she did not let herself look at the cards: “We don’t know.”