For years, China was the sales mecca for German car manufacturers.
But that is changing: VW, BMW and Mercedes have less and less to report in the Middle Kingdom.
Munich - At the end of February, the German car manufacturers received another warning call from China: The electric cars of the local suppliers sold poorly in the Middle Kingdom last year.
The data for 2022 shows that the situation in the lucrative sales market for BMW and Co. is getting worse.
The Handelsblatt
reported about it first
.
While the share of the core brand VW in the overall electric market is at least 2.4 percent, the premium manufacturers BMW, Mercedes and Audi are well below the "one percent hurdle".
A total of around 5.7 million electric cars were recently registered in China - just around 200,000 can be assigned to German suppliers.
The majority of the e-cars sold come from Chinese manufacturers (BYD, Nio, Xpeng) and US competitor Tesla.
The Chinese car market is in danger of slipping away - German manufacturers are losing with e-cars
The alarming development can be seen on the basis of two examples: At Porsche, sales figures in the most important individual market have fallen by two percent.
The sports car manufacturer sometimes attributes this to corona restrictions and bottlenecks in the wake of the chip crisis.
For the all-electric Taycan, however, sales plummeted by 16 percent - and it hasn't been on the market for very long.
With the Mercedes EQS, another luxury model of German engineering is proving to be a problem child: the Stuttgart-based company had to turn the price screw for the electric flagship, and we are talking about discounts of up to 30,000 euros.
The carmaker also had to lower prices for the smaller Mercedes EQE due to a lack of demand.
However, the competitive pressure has not only become much tougher in Asia: In addition to the unpleasant development in China from the point of view of the German manufacturers, there is also the fact that they are also coming under pressure on their home market.
Because in addition to the sometimes popular brands from Japan and South Korea, Chinese car manufacturers are also pushing into Europe and usually offer similar model alternatives at lower prices, for example in the middle class.
BMW, Mercedes and Co.: "Made in Germany" on the test bench
In addition, a paradigm shift is taking place in Germany: fewer and fewer people are buying a vehicle as a status symbol, while alternative mobility concepts are booming.
No wonder that Audi, BMW and Mercedes are concentrating more and more on non-European countries, where the reputation is still good and the potential buyers are larger.
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BMW electric study at a trade fair in Shanghai - German car manufacturers are taking a dip in China with e-cars.
© via www.imago-images.de
If the most important sales markets of China and the USA - which subsidize vehicles from their own production in the course of economic interests - then disappear, difficult times begin for BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen along with their subsidiary brands.
The decline in the value of quality “Made in Germany” in the Middle Kingdom has been accelerated by the move away from combustion engines, because those cars are still more popular.
However, the competitive environment is tougher for electric cars.
In this regard, the planned move away from combustion engines in Europe is all the more important.
Another problem aspect is the "China bashing" at the political level - warns car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer.
So how dramatic is the development for German car companies?
BMW, VW and Mercedes with excellent balance sheets - but for how long?
German manufacturers currently sell about a third of their cars in China alone - and accordingly have a lot to lose.
However, there are obvious problems selling expensive electric cars in the Middle Kingdom - this also affects the VW sports car brand Porsche.
Only the combustion models continue to sell well, but for how much longer?
The cards in global competition are being reshuffled and corporations such as VW, BMW and Mercedes have to manage the balancing act of continuing to sell expensive vehicles in the future, even though the competition is growing and the framework conditions in the course of e-mobility are becoming more difficult.
The meager performance on the Chinese market is not yet having an impact on business balance sheets: VW and BMW reported excellent figures for the past year 2022. Mercedes also recently reported a lavish profit, but this has negative side effects.
(PF)
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