GM lowers its sales targets for BEVs
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GM lowers its sales targets for BEVs
- Following the end of the cooperation with Honda on the design, production and sales of battery electric vehicles, the GM group (fifth largest carmaker in the world) decided to continue its development in the electric technology on its own. The battery electric platform designed by GM and Honda will therefore have only seen two realizations at Honda and six at GM.
- This platform, called GM BEV3 by the American carmaker, which concerns vehicles from 4.75 m to 5.00 m, was supposed to be followed by the GM BEV2 platforms (vehicles from 4.50 m to 4.75 m) and GM BEV1 (vehicles from 4.25 m to 4.50 m), but the carmaker has decided to postpone these projects due to the lack of dynamism in the market of battery electric vehicles which tend to stagnate almost everywhere in the world, except in China.
- GM is revising its objective of producing one million battery electric vehicles in 2025. GM is also ending the Ultium brand which was to supposed to gather all activities linked to electric technology (models, platforms and battery cells). GM will also adjust its investments in the electric technology, due to lower demand than expected, favoring LFP batteries for current production and reserving NMC batteries for the Premium category (Cadillac).
- GM sold only 290,000 BEVs in China (with Wuling and Baojun) over the first eight months of 2024 and 60,000 in the United States, or 350,000 in total, which is equivalent to a volume of 525,000 over the year (8% of its production). And the sales decline in China (-29% over the first eight months of 2024) does not give any signs that the volume of its BEV sales will increase in 2025. In response to this difficult context, the carmaker is now announcing the return of a range of plug-in hybrid vehicles, without however calling into question its objective of a fully electric range for the entire group in 2035, which seems unrealistic.
Toyota lowers its sales targets for BEVs
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Toyota lowers its sales targets for BEVs
- The Toyota group, which invested in battery electric vehicles much later than most other carmakers, particularly versus Chinese and European, is lowering its sales targets for fully electric vehicles. Until now, the world's leading carmaker expected one and a half million of its electric cars sold worldwide in 2026, but it has just announced that it is lowering its forecast to one million units due to the slowdown in the global electric vehicle market in 2024, despite a robust dynamic in China (BEVs represent 24% of the Chinese passenger car market). This new forecasts is equivalent to a 33% drop in Toyota's objectives, which had nevertheless unveiled a series of BEV concepts which were to be mass produced between 2025 and 2030. Today, sales of battery electric vehicles represent only 1.5% of Toyota's total sales, compared to 15% for BMW for example.
- Toyota remains a specialist and world leader of full-hybrid technology, with 2.2 million units sold over the first seven months of 2024 (i.e. 38% of Toyota's total sales).
- Despite the announcement of the reduction of its objectives for battery electric vehicles, Toyota intends to develop fuel cell technology (FCV) with the German group BMW which works for several years now on hydrogen cars. BMW has also scheduled the launch of an hydrogen car for 2028.
- Toyota and BMW will therefore work together on the future generation of fuel cell modules. There are currently 100,000 hydrogen vehicles on the road worldwide, including several thousand Toyota Mirai.
BYD should confirm the construction of an assembly plant in Hungary
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BYD should confirm the construction of an assembly plant in Hungary
- Chinese automaker BYD has announced it is in final negotiations with the Hungarian government to build an electric car assembly plant. BYD plans to produce electric cars and batteries at a factory in Szeged, in the south of the country. Remember that BYD already has an electric bus factory in Hungary (Komarom) but the company wants to set up another factory (much larger) to produce electric cars on a large scale and become the largest producer of electric vehicles in Europe, with a goal of selling one in ten electric cars sold in Europe by 2030 (i.e. approximately 500,000 units).
- Hungary has seen battery carmakers set up on its territory for some time. The establishment of BYD in the country only strengthens the presence of the Chinese in Hungary.
- BYD has quickly become the second largest producer of BEVs in the world (behind Tesla) and the first in China, a market in which it will become the sales leader for all engines combined, ahead of the Volkswagen group and the GM group. BYD thus sold 2,683,374 vehicles in China over the first 11 months of 2023, a figure compared to 2,723,854 sales of the Volkswagen group and 2,091,368 sales of the GM group (including Wuling). But while VW and GM are down compared to 2022, BYD is growing.
- BYD had indicated a few months ago that it wanted to establish itself industrially in Europe, because this market is supposed to become fully electrified in 2035 and recent measures aimed at increasing the price of Chinese cars in several European countries have only encourages this decision. BYD will now follow its great rival Tesla in Europe, which has a factory there that can already produce 500,000 vehicles per year.
SAIC Group is developing in Europe but declining in China
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SAIC Group is developing in Europe but declining in China
- The Chinese group SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) created in 1995 has quickly become the largest Chinese carmaker thanks to its GM and VW productions under license, surpassing the FAW (First Automobile Works) and SAW (Second Automobile Works) groups which became Dongfeng. But SAIC has also its own brands since 2005, most of which come from the former British group British Leyland, such as Roewe(derivated from Rover), MG and Maxus (derivated from LDV ex-Leyland DAF Vehicles).
- SAIC initially distributed its Roewe, MG and Maxus on the Chinese market but then decided to expand the scope of its sales to the European market. In Europe, MG has quickly become the best-selling Chinese brand, with 50,000 sales in 2021, 111,000 in 2022 and 230,000 in 2023, doubling its sales volume each year.
- SAIC has therefore acquired a favorable position in Europe, not to mention the 10,000 additional sales of Maxus in Europe in 2023.
- However, its position is less favorable in China, with a 17% drop in sales in the first seven months of 2024, a drop that is increasing from month to month, as it was -15% at the end of June, -14% at the end of May, -12% at the end of April. The negative gap between the sales volume in the first seven months of 2024 compared to the first seven months of 2023 is 100,000 units. And this gap must be placed in the context of a Chinese market that is currently occupied 63% by Chinese brands instead of 55% in 2023. SAIC's (MG-Roewe-Maxus) market share has thus gone from 4% of the Chinese market last year to 3% this year.
Paris Motorshow 2024: main Chinese novelties displayed
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Paris Motorshow 2024: main Chinese novelties displayed