Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has warned {that a} “massacre” is coming if EV makers comply with Tesla and Elon Musk in a “race to the underside.” The Stellantis CEO’s feedback got here amidst Ford’s announcement that it was scaling again manufacturing and trimming its workforce that’s producing the F-150 Lightning.
Whereas BYD exceeded Tesla in uncooked battery electrical car deliveries on the finish of 2023, the American EV maker continues to be one of many world’s undisputed leaders within the electrical car sector. To maintain Tesla’s automobiles aggressive, the automaker has carried out aggressive methods equivalent to steep worth cuts to make its automobiles extra reasonably priced to mainstream shoppers.
Such methods helped Tesla obtain a document yr in deliveries, however it additionally sacrificed profitability. Tesla’s automotive gross margin with out regulatory credit in Q3 2023, for one, fell to 16.3% from 27.9% in Q3 2022, as famous in a Fortune report. Elon Musk, for his half, has acknowledged that Tesla would doubtless have to preserve decreasing its costs to make sure that prospects might afford its automobiles.
As per Tavares throughout an occasion in Amsterdam on Friday, he’s making an attempt to keep away from chasing Elon Musk as he drives Tesla’s costs decrease and decrease. “If you happen to go and minimize pricing disregarding the truth of your prices, you should have a massacre. I’m making an attempt to keep away from a race to the underside,” the Stellantis CEO stated.
“I do know an organization that has brutally minimize pricing, and their profitability has brutally collapsed,” Tavares additionally famous with out naming Tesla.
The EV efforts of America’s greatest auto gamers have taken notable hits. Ford has acknowledged that its electrical car enterprise misplaced about $4.5 billion final yr, as famous in a Yahoo Finance report. Normal Motors (GM) additionally pulled again on its electrical car plans in late October regardless of stating up to now that it has each intention to dethrone Tesla within the electrical car market.
Tesla’s worth cuts haven’t ended. Only in the near past, Tesla lowered the costs of the Mannequin Y crossover in a number of European international locations by over $5,000. Comparable worth changes have additionally been rolled out in China, one among Tesla’s largest and best markets.
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