E-cars are to replace combustion engines. The price plays an important role here: If you can’t afford a new electric car, you can’t get away from petrol or diesel. But the big price slide for electric cars is not in sight.
Prices for e-cars: There is no relief in sight for customers
You have to be able to afford electric cars. That is true so far, because the Stromer are more expensive to produce than comparable petrol or diesel engines. Buyers notice this in the price. In recent months, the Stellantis boss, among others, has warned that many people will no longer be able to afford a car.
Actually, as the development progresses, the price problem with e-cars should be manageable. Experts have calculated that the prices for combustion engines and electric cars could be the same as early as 2024. Yann Vincent, head of the car battery manufacturer Automotive Cells Company (ACC), believes that electric vehicles will soon become significantly cheaper when they are bought unlikely.
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But on the contrary he expects prices to go up – which is already being seen at Tesla and other manufacturers such as Audi, for example. The problem is the raw materials for batteries: “It is obvious that it poses a threat to the ramp-up of electromobility if the prices for raw materials such as lithium or nickel remain at the current level. Because they drive up the cost of electric cars,” says Vincent (source: Handelsblatt).
The metals are required for the production of batteries in electric cars and are said to account for around 80 percent of the total costs of a battery. In some cases, raw material prices have more than doubled within a year. When it comes to the purchase price, electric cars only stand a chance against petrol and diesel because of the environmental bonus, which is now shaky. “This gap could widen. That wouldn’t be good,” the CEO continued.
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Environmental bonus helps against price explosion for electric cars
In his opinion – and that of other industry experts – nothing will change until new sources for the metals are developed and global production picks up. This can be expected in 2024 to 2025 at the earliest. It could take longer for this to show up in the purchase price. Until then, the only thing that can help is the environmental bonus.