The margin for each electrical vehicle sold does not hold the comparison with that of the models with combustion engine; registration them serves above all to avoid the Maximulte of the EU, rather than to make profits
There is a phrase commenting on the quarterly budget released by the Volkswagen group that leads to reflect: “The market success of our electric cars”, said Arno Anthitz, Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer of Volkswagen Group, “puts our results under pressure: an operating margin of about 4% clearly shows that there is still a considerable amount of work to be done in front of us”. As if to say: the fact that the orders of the German group saw the battery models exceed 20% of the total is not a positive fact for its accounts. Selling BET is essential to avoid incurring the maximulte provided by the European Union for overcoming the media of CO2 emissions of the total of enrolled cars, but this means at the same time reducing the overall profit margins. Of course, we are far from the times when Sergio Marchionne averted the Americans not to buy his 500 electrics, because each of them involved a considerable loss for the financial statements of the then FCA, but making money with battery cars still seems to be still arduous, at least for most of the manufacturers.
The average of the market
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Establishing how much a manufacturer earn on each car sold is, however, an always difficult calculation; In addition, the old maximum that read “small cars, small profits; large cars, large earnings”. In any case, by interpolating various sources you can reach an indicative figure of average margin for the market around 7-8% per vehicle sold, naturally with significant differences. In 2022, for example, Ferrari established new records with an operating margin greater than 28% for each specimen sold (it is equal to 136,671 euros per car); Porsche also enjoyed good profits, exceeding 13% (but the last accounts are less flattering). Most of the generalist and Premium manufacturers stands in a scissor ranging from 9 to 13%, but there are brands with a wide diffusion (such as Ford and Nissan) which remain in the band between 3 and 5%. Sometimes, it may even happen that certain models are sold at a loss: it is a choice of the house, to dispose of the stocks and not accumulate invented.
The game of volumes
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Obviously, the volumes are also affected on the overall results: you can reach significant profits by gaining less on each machine sold (at a lower price than that of direct competitors), but selling more. It is also true, however, that in recent years, starting from the Pandemia of 2020, the policy pursued by most manufacturers has been exactly the opposite one, that is, to reduce production – even at the cost of lengthening delivery times, to avoid accumulating stocks of invented specimens – increase prices, reduce discounts and increase the margin on each enrolled car.
electric ballast
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However, all these data refer to the total of the cars produced, regardless of their technology. If you limit yourself to purely electric ones, the numbers change. Only Tesla and Porsche manage to maintain high values, even if in 2024 they both suffered a decline, reaching respectively around 12.5 and 14%respectively: for the company of Elon Musk, the drop is due to a particularly aggressive prices policy, which has made it possible to sell many more specimens of Model 3 and Model Y, but with lower earnings. As for the other main electric manufacturers, Dacia was held around 10%, thanks to a careful cost containment policy, Ford has just exceeded 3%, BMW and Byd attests to around 6%, with the Chinese manufacturer still in the embryonic phase of its expansion on the western markets, while Volkswagen only touched 3%with its family of battery models ID. And here we are back, therefore, to the initial point. To balder the profits of the German group were the beings, given that, for example, Skoda exceeded 8% of marginality, record value for the brand. Therefore, antilitz is right when he claims that the sleeves must be rolled up in Wolfsburg and surroundings: the road to make the sale of the electricity is still long and one of the strategies to be pursued is probably to bring home the production of essential components such as batteries and electric motors. It is no coincidence that it is precisely what they are doing manufacturers such as Volkswagen (in the MARTORELL SEAT plant) and BMW (with a plant not far from Munich).
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