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Model Y 10 percent cheaper: Tesla attacks BMW and Mercedes in China

2021-01-12T12:55:41.316Z


The price for the Model Y is hot and could be dangerous for the leading premium manufacturers BMW and Mercedes in China - also because Tesla wants to rapidly increase its production there.


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There is great interest in Tesla's Model Y, like here in an exhibition in Beijing in early January

Photo: WANG ZHAO / AFP

The US electric car pioneer Tesla is attacking the dominance of German premium manufacturers in China with a lower price for its new Model Y.

At the beginning of the year, the Americans brought their latest model, the mid-size SUV Model Y, to the world's largest automobile market.

The price of the electric car is now around 43,000 euros, around ten percent below that of the comparable combustion models Audi Q5, BMW X3 or Mercedes GLC.

The gap becomes even larger in comparison with the direct electric car competitor EQC from Daimler, which costs around 20,000 euros more than the Model Y.

"The price will stir up the premium market"

Cui Dongshu, General Secretary of the Chinese Automobile Association CPCA

"The price will stir up the conventional premium market and shatter the belief that an electric car should be more expensive" than one with a gasoline or diesel engine, said

Cui Dongshu

, general secretary of the Chinese Automobile Association CPCA.

According to analysts, Tesla is setting a new benchmark.

The US manufacturer in China, which has been hailed as the world's most valuable car producer on the stock exchange, could also quickly catch up in terms of volume.

The Californians plan to produce around half a million vehicles in China this year.

Around a fifth of this is intended for export, four fifths for the local market, according to industry circles.

Tesla wants to ramp up production in China significantly

That would be a sharp increase compared to last year, when around 150,000 cars rolled off the assembly line at Tesla in China.

For comparison: The brand with the star sold around 774,000 vehicles in its largest single market in 2020, BMW including Mini sold 777,000 vehicles, Audi achieved a record with a good 727,000 deliveries.

The boom in electric cars in China should really pick up speed this year thanks to government funding.

The Chinese manufacturers

Nio

and

Xpeng are also expanding

production capacities

for this

.

When it comes to sales of vehicles with alternative drives - i.e. pure e-cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell cars - experts expect an increase of 30 to 40 percent to around 1.8 million units.

Last year, the corona crisis dampened the increase, the government's two million target was missed with an increase of only eight percent to 1.3 million vehicles.

To protect the climate, the People's Republic has decided that by 2025 20 percent of new cars should have an alternative drive, currently it is five percent.

Subsidies for this were extended until the end of 2022.

Stricter registration rules in large cities are also driving demand for electrified models.

Model 3 hangs out Audi A4 and BMW 3 in November

The November sales figures gave a foretaste of the tough competition that Tesla has been facing with the German premium brands, which have been market leaders for years.

The Model 3 built in China was in greater demand than the Audi A4, the BMW 3 and the Mercedes C-Class.

"Competitive prices are key," said CPCA Representative Cui.

Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh (Reuters)

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-01-12

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