Episode 114: German e-cars: box office hit or bankrupt product?

This podcast episode begins with a Tagesschau report from January 30, 2024: "In December 2023, 55,000 new e-cars were registered in Germany. That's around 47 percent fewer than in the same month last year. Petrol cars, on the other hand, sold significantly better, accounting for 31 percent of all new registrations." Not a word about the fact that this is a special German effect (elimination of the premium).

The Tagesschau is not alone with this (very undifferentiated) analysis of the current situation: for many weeks, leading German media have been reporting on the drop in sales of electric cars. However, many articles conceal the fact that (apart from Europe) German e-cars are also becoming a global bestseller!

In the last year 2023, German car manufacturers were even able to record a significant increase in the e-car country China: With 49 percent more e-car sales (2023), German carmakers thus grew twice as fast as the overall market. And this trend appears to be accelerating: In the fourth quarter, the increase even hit 63 percent (i.e. almost 3x as fast as the Chinese market).

Today's guest on the Geladen podcast is the author of an industry report that has made big waves. Dr. Philipp Rose from the management consultancy "Strategy&" talks about all the supposed "showstoppers" in German e-car production: 

Why are electric cars not yet profitable for Daimler, Volkswagen or BMW? What do the German "apprentice carmakers" still have to learn from "Master China"?

Since the Tagesschau is emphasizing the sales of Chinese electric cars so strongly, we ask our podcast guest specifically about the (supposed) success factors of these car manufacturers. It's only logical that our guest focuses on Asian battery innovations. Small spoiler: things don't look that bleak for the German automotive industry!

Tagesschau from 30.01.2024: "Gloomy forecast for 2024" https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/energie/elektromobilitaet-vda-100.html

Spiegel article: "Big plus - German electric car manufacturers are slowly catching up in China!" https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/e-auto-absatz-deutsche-hersteller-holen-in-china-etwas-auf-a-faa24683-6871-4963-b3ec-0eac1f4d2d59