As of: March 8, 2024, 5:45 p.m
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The US car manufacturer Tesla is successful with electric cars.
Numerous other newcomers also tried it - but many of them stumbled or have already failed.
Tesla is the lighthouse.
Against the car giants that have dominated for decades, the newcomer has so far managed to expand into a competitor worth several hundred billion dollars.
But this success story could remain an exception.
Dozens of new electric car start-ups were founded in the 2010s with the vision of emulating Tesla.
So far without success.
Quite the opposite.
In the recent past, small start-ups initially had to give up.
Then followed a wave of bankruptcies among hopeful newcomers who even boasted major investors, factories and real cars.
In the meantime, even supposedly well-financed brands that are represented on the market with serious cars have become thin-skinned.
Further bankruptcies, takeovers and consolidations are on the horizon.
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The first wave of bankruptcies for electric car newcomers came in 2022
A first prominent wave of bankruptcies followed in the shadow of the interest rate turnaround initiated in 2022, which made classic forms of investment more attractive again and loans expensive.
Chronically underfinanced newcomers were the first to feel this and quickly had problems getting fresh and cheap money.
Uniti in Sweden went bankrupt in 2022, followed by Lightyear in the Netherlands in 2023 - and the solar car Sion from Sono Motors will not come either.
There is unlikely to be a second chance for these projects.
But even financially strong newcomers who received financial support from large corporations quickly found themselves in trouble.
Like the Saab successor NEVS in Sweden, which was taken over by the Chinese conglomerate Evergrande in 2019 and was put into “hibernation” around a year ago.
At the end of 2023, however, an international investor is said to have come in and may still be able to develop the Emily GT electric sedan developed under Evergrande's direction to market maturity.
Failures also in the area of electric commercial vehicles
There have also been some newcomers to commercial vehicles.
Pickup truck maker Lordstown Motors, which is affiliated with Taiwanese computer parts company Foxconn, filed for bankruptcy last summer.
The bankruptcy estate has now been bought by Lordstown founder Steve Burns, who founded a successor company, Land X, in early 2024.
The small transport manufacturer Arrival from England, in which Hyundai and UPS had shares, had to file for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2024.
A few weeks earlier, Volta Trucks had been hit hard, even though DB Schenker had actually promised the Swedes good business with an order for around 1,500 electric trucks.
Electric car projects such as Hopium from France and WM Motor and Byton from China are also now insolvent.
Financial problems are also becoming apparent at the Chinese car manufacturers Aiways and HiPhi, which are also officially represented in Germany.
The market environment has become extremely difficult, especially in China.
There are now hundreds of car brands here vying for the attention of buyers.
Small niche providers quickly reach their financial limits with low sales figures.
At the last IAA in Frankfurt in 2019, Byton showed the M-Byte - the manufacturer is now insolvent.
© Manfred Segerer/Imago
US electric brand Rivian with high losses
The US brand Rivian is also one of the big losers of the beautiful new e-mobility.
In 2022 and 2023 alone, the group reported between $1.3 billion and $1.8 billion in net losses per quarter.
According to an analysis by Sean McLain of
Wall Street Journal,
Rivian's cars offer a lot of technology, but they also cost a lot.
Rivian, in which Amazon has a stake, among others, suffered a loss of more than $43,000 for every vehicle sold in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to analysts.
In 2021, Rivian was celebrated as the “Tesla for pick-ups” and as a new stock market miracle – Rivian’s electric vans are also in use at Amazon in Germany.
At its stock market debut in 2021, the company was able to raise $12 billion and has since overtaken car giants like Ford in terms of enterprise value.
However, the share price has now come under heavy pressure and has fallen from around 22 euros to currently 10 euros since December alone.
The issue price of the stock in 2021 was $78.
At least there is hope that Rivian could be on the right track, because a high-volume series is in the starting blocks and sales figures have also increased significantly in the past year.
The company was able to deliver more than 50,000 cars in 2023.
Last year there were around 20,000.
At least it doesn't seem impossible that losses will turn into profits.
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Apple's secret car project: Apparently stopped a few weeks ago
Apple also had to learn that you can burn enormous amounts of money when you start building automobiles.
Just a few weeks ago, the technology group finally said goodbye to its car project.
The iPhone manufacturer had been working on its own future car for around ten years and, according to a report in the
New York Times,
around ten billion dollars were invested in its development.
Despite the large company, the many employees and the gigantic investments, Apple has not managed to develop its own high-tech mobile on its own.
This would certainly have been easier with a partner from the automotive industry.
This is probably why rumors are now circulating that Apple could take over Rivian given the currently low share price.
Fisker even speaks openly about a possible entry of a partner.
The car brand has been on the market with the Ocean electric SUV since last year, although only a few thousand units have been built and sold so far.
In its recently published annual balance sheet for 2023, Fisker reported losses in the three-digit million range and spoke, among other things, of possible bankruptcy.
The development of new models such as the Alaska pick-up was therefore put on hold.
Fisker is hoping for fresh capital for the continued existence of the brand from the entry of an established car manufacturer, which, according to recent media reports, is Nissan.
The Fisker Ocean has been on the market since 2023 - the new development of a pick-up model has been put on hold for the time being.
© Pond5 Images/Imago
US electric car maker Lucid Motors also has high losses
That leaves the US car manufacturer Lucid Motors, in which a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, among others, has invested billions to make it the new Tesla.
The only model, the Air electric sedan, was highly praised by testers.
Around 8,400 cars were built at the Arizona factory last year, of which 6,000 were delivered to customers.
In its 2023 annual balance sheet, Lucid reported a net loss of $2.8 billion.
Price reductions that have already taken place are intended to boost sales of the Air, and the Gravity is also a top-selling SUV model.
Losses are still taken into account for the current year.
(Mario Hommen/SP-X)