Carmakers across need to cut prices to boost sales volumes in a mature market under pressure from Chinese carmakers and the EU Mandate.
That’s the view from Jato Analytics which said concerns “are mounting over the survival of Europe’s automotive industry” if manufacturers are unable to find ways to reduce their prices.
Car sales in Europe are in freefall, down 19.6% in the year to September year on year and even further when compared with pre-pandemic 2018.
Felipe Munoz, Global analyst at JATO Dynamics, said: “Europe is a mature automotive market and therefore years of extreme growth are an event of the past.
“However, while the automotive market has typically demonstrated a cyclical nature, current weak performance and high price tags are not a natural response to years of crisis, but rather evidence of a deeper-rooted problem.”
Jato Dynamics said the 2035 EU mandate regulation was causing car prices to rise across the region.
And the market is also under siege from Chinese brands. According to JATO Dynamics’ data, of the 7.2 million BEVs sold globally between January and September 2024, 4.1 million of them were sold in China and 3.7 million were sold by Chinese manufacturers.
ICE vehicles have been central to the price increases seen in four of the five countries. In Germany, while BEV prices increased by 5.2% between 2019 and 2024, prices of ICE vehicles increased by 26.1%. In Spain, BEV prices have increased by 1.9% while ICE prices have increased by 17.7%. In the UK, prices for BEVs have increased by 16.5% and 29.4% for ICE.
