Platin has been in a persistent bear market since the early 2010s, in which the platinum price, with the exception of the time during the Corona crisis, could not have any significant outbreaks. The rather one -sided demand structure meant that the market (at least at least the industrial) perspectives of the precious metal were rather pessimistic. The reason was that the breakthrough of electromobility would largely banish the combustion engine, and thus the use of catalysts into the history books. However, current developments could now help to ensure that marketers could increasingly question this rational.
Disappointing sales of electric vehicles and political change of direction, such as in Germany and the USA, cause increasing shaking off the burner. In the past few months, the first vehicle manufacturers such as Volkswagen or Mercedes-Benz decided to postpone or put on hold the living out of their combustion pallet.
While fully electric vehicles remain behind ambitious forecasts, plug-in hybrids are increasing not only as a temporary compromise solution, but as a central future solution for mobility. These are vehicles that have a combustion engine and an electric motor with rechargeable battery.
Plug-in-hybrid drive units need more platinum per vehicle than a conventional combustion engine, since the combustion engine installed in plug-in hybrids starts more cold and the converters must therefore be loaded more closely with platinum. If you calculate conservatively with an increase of just one gram more per car, the effect is multiplied by 20 million hybrids sold to 650,000 ounces by 2030. According to the Statista platform, around 4.12 million plug-in hybrids were sold in 2024. Meanwhile, the consulting company Alix Partners has increased a forecast for the global proportion of plug-in hybrids from 5 percent to 12 percent by 2030 (Reuters, 09.09.2024).