Volkswagen has responded it's responded to Tesla's dominance in Europe it wants to claim back its Crown Believe It or Not Volkswagen was the largest ev manufacturer not that long ago but it's definitely not anymore Tesla now has that Crown in Europe Volkswagen has reduced the prices of its electric cars the id4 the ID3 in fact every single model in numerous European countries hello my friends welcome to the channel I'm Sam Evans you're watching the electric Viking Volkswagen has cut prices and changed trim levels on their electric car lineup they're trying to offer cheaper models but they're obviously just sort of quietly reducing the actual features that you get in these models it's definitely worth before you buy before you sign just make sure that it has door handles or you know tires wheels just make sure I'm joking of course all of them have tires and and wheels but not all of them have air conditioning actually I'm joking about that too but these core models are looking pretty sparse when it comes to specification the Volkswagen brand has cut prices and revamped its ID line of electric vehicles it's cut prices in France Belgium and other northern European countries where it said that Tesla is outperforming the Volkswagen groups EVS particularly based on price Volkswagen's local subsidiaries and importers announced the changes at the end of December Volkswagen said that the revisions to its ID lineup quote will enable us to achieve our ambitious business goals with our clear pricing strategy we continue to focus primarily on the quality and attractiveness of our products additional Market specific offers are geared to the country's specific requirements and needs of customer said Volkswagen individual markets determine what pricing or promotions to offer what does this mean it means that Volkswagen will be losing money on these vehicles because it already loses money on electric car sales but it's willing to take a loss and Volkswagen is also change its strategy here they've decided make less electric cars they've already made that announcement within the last couple of days however making less EVS means they're slowing down production of their or the timeline for revealing the new id2 electric car the price Cuts come despite Volkswagen Group C Oliver Bloom saying last year that the automaker would not get into a price wall in Europe with Tesla the Region's top selling EV brand after Tesla cut prices sharply on the model 3 and the model y we have a clear pricing strategy and are focusing on reliability we trust in the strength of our products and Brands said Bloom but after that clear pricing strategy uh was revealed box swagen have now cut prices anyway many experts are forecasting that demand for EVS will slow as customers they kind of get sick of these high prices being asked particularly in Europe um the other thing is of course charging networks are still being ramped up automakers are struggling to match profitability of internal combustion engine cars Volkswagen has said well they're going to change their strategy build more internal combustion engine cars they make more money off those and you know just hope that one day their EVS will be profitable then they can make more of them Volkswagen group executive said in October that EV orders had slowed significantly in 2023 although the automaker said at the time it would stick to its EV pricing despite cuts by Rivals now of course it's since changed its mind in November Volkswagen also cut shifts at its huge electric vehicle Factory it's biggest in the world in zow in Germany in the face of what they say was reduced demand for EVS they obviously have f a lot of Staff as well the factory which has an annual capacity of 360,000 vehicles builds the ID3 the id4 the Audi Q4 rron and the Cooper born EVs and obviously it builds them at a relatively high price because in China uh lwen groups electric cars cost approximately 50% less than what they do in Europe Germany has now ended EVS so the Volkswagen group is saying well let's go after France because France have EV incentives they're targeting those incentives it's quite a smart move actually in France the new prices and trim lines me that nearly all versions of the ID3 compact hatch pack and the id4 and id5 midsize SUVs will be eligible for government bonuses of 5 to 7,000 this year so that's clearly what Volkswagen are targeting they've mentioned that in a press release as well the Volkswagen ID3 Pro with a 58 kwh battery is available in ID trim level for 40,000 with a 77 KW battery it costs about as much as a Tesla Model y or a model 3 at € 443110 the previous Low's price was €3,000 now you can see why not that many are selling because 43,000 for a vehicle with a 58 KW battery that's quite small seems to me to be just too expensive the id4 in ID trim starts at $44,000 that seems like a better deal to me the id4 for $44,000 now it actually is a little bit cheaper than that in America when the id4 was launched in France last year it started at 52,000 although Volkswagen offered a rebate to buyers last Autumn that cut the price down slashed it in fact by €8,000 the lowest price id5 starts now at 50,500 while the life Max trim costs a little bit more than that Volkswagen says that's 8,150 less than the roughly equivalent Pro performance model but with more options for a net benefit to buyers of € 11,260 so Volkswagen is saying it's slashing the prices of electric cars to boost them out in Europe essentially in France Volkswagen has trailed in fact it's behind other EV makers in sales it's the second largest electric vehicle maker and and the thing is France is an important Market because it's actually the second largest electric vehicle Market by volume in Europe you probably heard you know Norway is at 85% but there's not actually that big of a car market in Norway the car market in France is huge so the second biggest Market in Europe is obviously it's it's kind of being missed out on by the Volkswagen brand in 2023 Volkswagen sold 4,800 ID3 making it the 84th 84th most popular model overall and the 13th bestselling EV obviously the id4 it didn't do well either it was 998th and the 16th most popular electric car with only 3,911 sales for some context here the Tesla Model y completely destroyed both of them it outsold both of them put together by a factor of four France's bestselling EVS last year were the Tesla Model y with 37,000 sales the DEA spring with 29761 the Tesla Model 3 with 25,000 the fat new 500 with 24,000 the P E28 uh that had 22,700 sales and the mg4 with 20,000 sales in fact two Chinese EVS are massively outselling the Volkswagen brand in France clearly France doesn't particularly like Volkswagen EVS I've mentioned this in other videos as well and you can see why they're overpriced in Norway which has Europe's highest EV penetration at 85% of new car sales Volkswagen says it needs to be competitive it's also cutting its prices in Norway the key reason is that it feels like it's the sales are not where they should be as though you know Tesla is taking more market share than it should be and that's a good point because one in every four cars sold in Norway is a Tesla that's for the entire year of 2023 thanks for watching
