Will new BEVs under 30,000 euros revive the European market?
- While in recent years, car prices have increased significantly and the offer of 100% electric models has tended to be around 35,000 to 50,000 euros (a Volkswagen ID3 costs 35,000 euros, a Tesla Model 3 costs 40,000 euros, a Tesla Model Y costs 45,000 euros), carmakers have announced that a number of them will launch 100% electric models for less than 30,000 euros to expand their range and meet a demand that cannot currently be satisfied. For several months, the launches of 100% electric cars under 30,000 euros have been accelerating, in line with these announcements. Let us mention the most representative models: Citroën e-C3 (23,300 euros to 27,800 euros) equipped with a 44 kWh battery, Fiat Grande Panda EV (24,900 euros) equipped with a 44 kWh battery, Renault 5 E-Tech (27,990 euros) equipped with a 40 kWh battery, Hyundai Inster (29,250 euros) equipped with a 49 kWh battery, Kia EV2 (price not communicated) equipped with a 49 kWh battery.
- Other models in this price range are expected to be launched in 2026, such as the Renault Twingo E-Tech, Volkswagen ID1/ID2, Skoda Epiq , and Cupra Raval. Chinese carmakers will also be worth keeping an eye on, as they may invest in the market, despite their disadvantage of not being able to benefit from the ecological bonus. The Leapmotor T03 is already available in Europe, priced at €20,000, but this model was only released in 2024 in a thousand units.
- In any case, these new 100% electric models costing less than 30,000 euros will not be able to revive the European market as a whole. (they should represent only 7% of the European market in 2030), but they will be able to revive the European electric market which has not progressed since 2024. In 2030, BEVs as a whole could represent 35% of European production (passenger cars + light commercial vehicles) compared to 14% in 2024, 13% in 2023 and 10% in 2022.