Last week, Ford announced that it would be delaying some $12 billion in EV investments amid falling demand and uncertainties surrounding its new contract with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. This announcement comes on the heels of the automaker saying that its future EV production goals are now “flexible” and essentially tied to demand, a move that its cross-town rival General Motors was quick to emulate. However, not all automakers are planning to scale back their all-electric ambitions, as Hyundai recently announced that it won’t be altering its EV strategy, and now, Volkswagen – or VW for short – has said that it won’t be delaying its EV production targets either, according to Reuters.
Rather than scaling back production or cutting investments in EVs, VW has a bit of a different strategy amid waning demand – it’s working to cut costs and keep prices the same to improve margins, to the tune of 10 billion euros ($10.6 billion) in savings. The announcement accompanies VW’s disappointing Q3 financial results, which led it to cut its margin guidance for the year.
Regardless, VW is the latest automaker to warn consumers and investors that the demand for all-electric vehicles has not grown quite as quickly as most expected, with its own European order total for those types of vehicles being cut precisely in half – from 300,000 last year to 150,000 this year, even though orders did increase in Q3 and look poised to continue to do so for the remainder of 2023.
In addition to waning demand, VW pointed to soaring interest rates as yet another barrier to EV adoption, as those pricier models are quite expensive to finance at the moment. This has prompted some – like Tesla and Ford – to drop prices, but VW remains convinced that it can continue to grow sales without following suit.
We’ll have more on everything Ford’s competition is up to soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
VW EV inventory is not selling and does not makes sense keep the goals
Hyundai/Kia said the same thing this week and it reeks of stupidity.
Ford FAILED. That’s why they are backing off. Tesla cleaned their clock. Now that Ford is going back to its safe horse and buggy the stock holders are cheering for about 2 years. Then Ford will crash even further with no EV product to offer. The CATL’s Shenxing 4C charging battery will offer new wings to EVs. So go ahead make your software weaker your inability to compete against the Chinese worse. Shame. There batteries coming as well but CATL’s battery is out today.
Sure thing BOT
Ok I’m trying to be as gentle as possible. Listen you dumb ass mofoss! We don’t want electric cars! I don’t care what dumb ass Joe tell you or gives you our taxpayer money, we don’t want electric cars!!!!!!
Dont listen to morons like Big burnin gas steve like many americans they always vote and work against theirs and others best interest. The reason that adaption of EV’s is slowing is simple math. Money due to higher interest rates buys less today and most of the current EV’s are expensive top of the line luxury models. It is the same model used with new gas cars. Car companies sell more and more expensive cars in good time for profit and when times get tough you need to switch to cheaper models. Well that takes time and there are only 1-2 models of EV under 30k unfortunately. If they start rolling out under 30k EV with 200+ range they will be huge sellers. I have an 8 year old EV and have saved a fortune in zero maintenance and zero gas to the effect that I have almost saved half of the cars original cost. I plan to buy my second EV in the next year or two when many more models come to market that are a bit more scaled back in price.
You are stating the obvious John that many who comment here chose to ignore. What we are reading now is how each auto manufacturer choses to weather the economic down turn associated with inflation followed by higher interest rates to cool the inflation at a global level. As you stated those auto manufacturers, like Ford, that focused their EV sales on high end vehicles will take the largest hit to the bottom line. The Korean Manufacturers will weather the economic down turn better than American manufacturers since they sell EVs at a lower price point prior to government buy local incentives. They also has cheaper EVs like the Kona. This will put the Asian manufacturers ahead the the big 3 in terms of EV development the longer the economic down turn continues. This is a good time for Tesla to role out the model 2 to retain market share. The current slump in EV sales is a opportune time for the development of reliable EV charging systems and power grids globally.
True true Timothy! Plus the standard range and some long range Tesla’s as a used resale car at low year age would be another low priced ev as well. I like the Kona and Bolt EUV alot the only reason I have not bought one or a used model 3 is that I would like a slightly bigger one for the dogs and loading larger items from homedepot. Kona is super close to the size I want but I’m gonna wait and see next years other cross over and small suvs coming out like the Chevy EV’s. Who knows I might still get a Kona anyhow next year!?
So VW’s plan is to just… Ignore the slowdown and expect people to still buy expensive EVs? Even as their competitors drop prices?
That’s some serious delusion there. Even if the EV market exploded tomorrow, the competitors with lower prices will still crush them.