Latest news with #StefanBratzel
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Electric car drives 1,205 kilometres on single charge in world record
In a sign that range anxiety in electric cars could soon be a thing of the past, US manufacturer Lucid says one of its cars was able to cover 1,205 kilometres on a single battery charge - a new world record. The feat comes as the driving range of an electric vehicle remains a key selling point, with many would-be buyers of electric cars still put off by fears of running out of battery on longer journeys. Lucid announced in July that its Air Grand Touring covered a distance of 1,205 km on a journey from Sankt Moritz in Switzerland via Austria to Munich. However, some motoring pundits have reacted cautiously to the record, arguing it has little impact on electric mobility. This trip secured the manufacturer an entry in the Guinness Book of Records for beating the previous record by a solid 160 kilometres. A Mercedes electric had set the record only a few weeks ago in June. The five-seat Lucid is admittedly one of the most powerful EVs in the world, delivering a massive 831 horsepower, albeit for an equally massive price upwards of $110,000. The saloon reaches a top speed of 270 km/h - far faster than most electric cars. Meanwhile its ultra-fast charging capability means that the Lucid's battery can regain up to 400 kilometres of range in just 16 minutes, the maker says. Commenting on the record, industry expert Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper: "The range race continues, although a long range is becoming less important." Bratzel called the record a "marketing gag" with limited relevance to everyday motoring. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer from the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) said the range of EVs has improved considerably in recent years and is not far removed from that of diesel vehicles.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla's sales recovery hinges on low-cost car running behind schedule—‘without a new model, things will only get worse'
Tesla may have to revise its full-year guidance lower after failing to meet repeated promises it would launch at least one new lower cost model in the first half of this year. Currently it is still predicting an increase in EV sales volumes, but first half figures are already expected to show a double-digit decline, and reversing that in the second half will prove difficult with the current line-up. 'Without a new model they'll keep on losing market share,' warns one expert. The excitement over Tesla's robotaxi launch is subsiding as fewer social media videos are posted. It's also been four days since CEO Elon Musk celebrated his first car driving itself from the factory to a waiting customer a half hour away without anyone inside or remotely controlling the vehicle. What's left is the company's daily grind of selling EVs in mass numbers, and there the outlook is poor, with the company flagging a revision in full-year guidance when it reports second-quarter earnings later this month. Musk's singular focus on self-driving vehicles appears to have led him to neglect the carmaker's core business, and now plans that were arranged last year to bring fresh product to market are again running behind schedule. 'Without a new model, things will only get worse. It's their only chance in the near term to fill their production capacity of 3 million annual vehicles,' Stefan Bratzel, founder and director of Germany's Center for Automotive Management, said in an interview with Fortune. He's not convinced Tesla can grow its vehicle sales next year, let alone this year as Musk has promised. 'Elon Musk can argue robotaxis compete in a different market and point to Tesla's market value all he wants—in my view he's just putting on a brave face,' he said. Tesla did not respond to a request by Fortune for comment. Tesla reported second-quarter vehicle sales on Wednesday in line with expectations. The median analyst estimate from a Tesla poll predicted another steep year-on-year drop similar to the 13% registered in the first quarter, and this time Tesla delivered, figuratively and literally. The 384,122 vehicles sold to customers may have been its lowest for a Q2 since 2022, when its two new factories in Austin and Germany were barely building any cars. Shares gained however because the drop wasn't nearly as bad as some had feared. In the company's well-informed fan community—where data is tracked religiously, disseminated real time via social media, and discussed online almost daily—many retail investors were bracing for a drop closer to 20% or worse. Meanwhile in crucial markets like China, Tesla faces fresh competition from the likes of Xiaomi's YU7, a crossover deliberately targeted at the Model Y. The YU7 has already attracted nearly 300,000 pre-orders in only an hour. Without new product, the company will not be able to meet its target for volume growth in 2025, itself a far cry from the original forecast of 20%-30% EV sales growth that Musk had predicated in October. The poor sales figures already reportedly cost one top executive his job. The only new addition on the horizon to Tesla's passenger car line-up, of which investors can be certain, is a CyberCab that comes without a steering wheel or pedals. it's unclear whether there is any demand for a car that cannot be controlled manually. Even if Tesla re-engineered it to allow for human drivers, it only seats two, limiting it to a niche market. 'Without a new model they'll keep on losing market share to BYD in China and Volkswagen Group in Europe,' Bratzel said. 'Don't forget they've also suffered a heavy image loss due to Musk's political activities.' Tesla knows this as well, and the company has repeatedly promised over the past 15 months it would accelerate the launch of new models, including more affordable ones, to the first half of this year. Yet the only all new model not previously in the product range is the single-motor Cybertruck RWD, which—while $10,000 cheaper—stripped away a lot of features, limiting its appeal. Tesla fans have been waiting patiently for months, debating online what it could look like, designing their own renderings and comforting themselves that Musk still had until the end of June. Yet just like the Roadster the CEO promised to reveal by the end of last year, the first half of 2025 came and went with no news about the more affordable models—despite repeated assurances from Tesla executives. 'We're still focused on bringing cheaper models to market soon. The start of production is still planned for June,' finance chief Vaibhav Taneja said in April during the Q1 investor call. His colleague, chief vehicle engineer Lars Moravy, added there is 'nothing blocking us from starting production within the timeline laid out'. This new timetable wasn't pulled out of a hat. There was a very real reason Tesla claimed they could shave an average of six months off its original model launch timetable: Musk decided to switch the newer models from the CyberCab's next-gen vehicle architecture to the existing Model Y/3 platform. The tactical rationale behind this is Tesla has too much installed production capacity which needs to be utilized to offset their fixed costs. 'Models that come out in next months will be built on our lines and will resemble, in form and shape, the cars we currently make,' Moravy said on the call. 'It's important to emphasize that as we've said all along, the full utilization of our factories is the primary goal for these new products.' Bratzel warns this limits their product differentiation, and poses a risk to existing models should they eventually be built. A fine balance has to be struck when moving downmarket. Reduce price too much and you'll pull demand from higher margin products—what known in the industry as the dreaded cannibalization effect. On the other hand, reduce features too much and you won't generate enough additional volume to justify the investment. That's why traditional car companies invest in new bodystyles or expand into new segments where they had no offer previously. Musk by comparison has favored the iPhone approach: design one killer product and manufacture it at a lower cost than the competition though massive economies of scale. But he lost his touch with the Cybertruck, which was supposed to do to the pickup segment what the Model Y did for SUVs, but floped. While Musk's attention was diverted to politics and robots, car companies have been poaching his EV customers tired of buying effectively the same Model Y as almost six years ago. And that won't likely change any time soon. 'They'll have to bring a stripped-down Model Y, perhaps before the end of this year,' Bratzel predicts. This would be a cheaper version with fewer creature comforts, for example seats that use cloth instead of pricier synthetic leather. 'We'll just have to see how much of the existing Model Y volume it cannibalizes.' This updates an earlier version of the story with the results from Tesla's Q2 delivery figures posted on Wednesday. This story was originally featured on
Mint
21-06-2025
- Automotive
- Mint
Continental's Split Shows How Germany's Business Model Is Shifting
(Bloomberg) -- Continental AG intends to become the latest German manufacturing stalwart to dismantle itself, highlighting the pressure to become more agile to weather structural issues at home and respond to mounting competition abroad. Tracing its roots to producing rubber hoof buffers for horses in the late 19th century, the Hanover-based company plans to split into three: the core tire business, rubber components and auto parts. The moves, which Continental will pitch to investors on Tuesday, would unwind decades of diversification and reflect Germany's shifting business model. 'Continental is a very good example of how German companies are finding it difficult to navigate the transformation,' said Stefan Bratzel, head of the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. 'This breakup shows one way that the model of a big, one-stop shop doesn't work anymore.' Once favoring sprawling structures, German businesses are getting smaller and more nimble in response to rapidly changing technology and geopolitical volatility. Industrial giant Siemens AG and steelmaker Thyssenkrupp AG already moved to split up years ago. Automakers have shifted as well as the industry reacts to Chinese rivals and the transition to electric vehicles. After Daimler split its cars and truck businesses and Volkswagen AG partially spun off the Porsche sports-car brand as well as its commercial vehicle unit, Continental's strategic shift shows how the supply chain is now starting to adapt. Chief Executive Officer Nikolai Setzer wasn't always so enthusiastic about a breakup. Two years ago, he told investors that the global automotive and industrial group would stick to its three-pillar structure, because it provided better insulation from unforeseen downturns. That changed last August, when Continental announced plans to spin off its auto-parts unit and lowered earnings forecasts due to weak car demand in Europe. At that point, its non-tire rubber unit ContiTech was becoming more of an industrial player and drifting away from the automotive business, according to the 54-year-old executive. A second carveout would leave Continental with a tires-only portfolio, which nets the biggest profits. 'The common markets of our three sectors were reducing or diminishing over time — the sectors had different purposes, customers and products, so synergies were limited,' Setzer said in an interview. 'As soon as you have different entities within a company, you have to see whether the synergies outweigh the challenges of holding them together.' Headwinds have increased in Germany after two years of contraction and minimal growth projected this year. For Europe's largest economy, the changed corporate strategy is not without risk. Smaller companies could be more easily swallowed by rivals or relocate to escape smothering bureaucracy and high labor costs. That puts pressure on Chancellor Friedrich Merz's administration to move fast on reforms that can revive prospects for domestic companies, even though hundreds of billions of euros in planned debt-financed government spending has brightened the mood. While the carveout of parts business Aumovio is a done deal, union leaders are concerned that separating rubber unit ContiTech from the tire business would add costs and put jobs at risk. They're threatening to use their control of half the seats on the supervisory board to try to block the move. What Bloomberg Intelligence Says: The restructuring will make Continental a pure-play tire business, which could position it for a rerating. — Gillian Davis, industry analyst (Click here for the full report) 'There are considerable synergies between tires and ContiTech,' Matthias Tote, the unit's works council chief and a supervisory board member, said in an internal memo sent to workers on Monday. Jörg Schönfelder, another employee representative on the board, said executives are moving ahead 'without adequately assessing the potential risks.' The company has already announced plans to close five ContiTech sites completely and two partially, which will cut hundreds of jobs. Despite the resistance, Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle can break the deadlock, though the tensions could spark legal challenges and delay the process. The motivation for management is clear. With the stock effectively flat-lining over the past five years, Continental is worth about a third less than rival Michelin, which has recently moved in the opposite direction and expanded its non-tire business. Continental's breakup will happen in two stages with the listing of Aumovio planned for September. The sale of ContiTech — which employs almost 40,000 people globally and makes an array of rubber and plastics products — is targeted for next year. 'The auto spinoff is the right thing to do, just probably five years too late,' said Harry Martin, an analyst at Bernstein. 'It's not unleashing a lot of growth potential.' To be sure, some German conglomerates remain intact. Robert Bosch GmbH, a major automotive supplier and industrial tech firm, is shielded from breakup pressure by its foundation ownership. Merck KGaA, which is active in pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals, and consumer goods maker Henkel remain largely untouched. Conglomerates once promised stability and efficient capital allocation across sectors, but sprawling portfolios have fallen out of favor as investors push for focus and higher returns. Continental's breakup reflects a broader retreat from the model, as complexity and weak synergies increasingly outweigh the benefits of diversification. For Setzer, Germany's economic woes are only part of the driving force to split up. The company has seen 'tempered growth' in its global markets, specifically in Europe and North America, he said. In China, the automotive unit's sales have been falling short of the market and that's likely to continue, according to Aumovio's top executive. 'In such an environment where you need to adapt fast because visibility is so low, where customers can't always give you reliable forecasts, that's where you need small, agile teams,' Setzer said. 'The better you can adapt now, the better you will profit in the future.' --With assistance from William Wilkes and Isolde MacDonogh. More stories like this are available on
Forbes
26-04-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Europe's EV Sales Accelerate But Long-Term EU Mandates Look Demanding
Fiat Grande Panda battery electric compact car on display at the AutoSalon on January 10, 2025 in ... More Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Sjoerd van) Europe's new electric vehicle market has been showing signs of life in 2025 with Volkswagen leading the way and the Chinese stumbling temporarily, but the current pace of growth is too slow to get close to European Union long-term targets designed to force citizens entirely out of new combustion-powered vehicles and into EVs by 2035. The EU has decreed that no new vehicles powered by diesel or gasoline engines will be sold from 2035 and the target for 2030 is close to 80%. But the industry is close to forcing big changes in the rules by allowing other technologies to flourish. That would allow a longer life for hybrids and the use of so-called e-fuels. Most forecasters agree that by 2030 European EV sales will reach only between 30 and 50% of the market. Among those brave enough to speculate in print about 2035, investment researcher Jefferies reckons that EVs will reach only 50% of the market. EV Volumes is a hopeful outlier, expecting market share of 60.5% in 2030 and 93.1% in 2035. The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said new EV sales jumped 23.9% in the first quarter to 413,000, compared with the same period of 2024. European EV sales stagnated last year at just under 2 million and a market share of 16%. The trouble with these carbon dioxide-based EV targets for European manufacturers is that legislators were apparently unaware that China had a huge lead over its own domestic manufacturers and that adherence to the targets would devastate its own industry. This led to the recent introduction of punitive tariffs on Chinese EV imports. There is no shortage of worries for European auto manufacturers. The economy is weakening, and competition from China threatens even the likes of BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Audi despite the tariffs. Chinese automakers like BYD and Geely now have at least a 30% cost advantage in EV manufacturing, investment bank UBS has said. These premium German automakers are also under threat in China where the locals can now outsell even classic European brands. This upheaval heralds the start of an era where the traditional manufacturers of the West would see their markets undermined to such an extent that some would be forced into bankruptcy or mergers. Professor Stefan Bratzel, director of Germany's Center of Automotive Management, has talked of an approaching 'Darwinian' moment for the industry. President Trump's attempt to abruptly end years of what he calls unfair tariffs couldn't have come at a worse time and has induced frightening stock market and currency fluctuations and threatened to undermine long-established markets and supply chains. These mounting pressures mean EU politicians will be forced to water down the CO2-based rules and allow much more flexibility to give European EV-makers a lifeline. This has already started. The EU recently extended the deadline for 2025 compliance by a couple of years. More serious concessions are likely said Santiago Arieu, analyst with Fitch Solutions. Renault vice-President Gilles Vidal presents a Renault 5 E-TECH electric car. (Photo by EMMANUEL ... More DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images) 'We believe that the notion that Europe's new light-vehicle market will be entirely EVs from 2035 has lost momentum over the past 2-3 years owing to challenges in achieving higher EV penetration rates in the mass autos market. We therefore believe that the prospect of the EU revising its targets closer to 2035 is substantially higher now compared with market expectations in 2021,' Arieu said. Fitch Solutions expects European EV market share will reach around 35% in 2030 and 52% in 2034. Arieu said more affordable and advanced EVs over the medium term allow a moderately optimistic outlook, although much of the increased demand for EVs so far has been induced by government incentives. French automotive consultancy Inovev said most current EV sales are in the price range €35,000 ($40,000) to €50,000 ($57,000), including the Volkswagen ID.3 and Teslas Model 3 and Y. This year will see the launch of many cheaper EVs, like the Citroen e-C3 (from €23,300/$26,500)) Fiat Grande Panda (€24,900) Renault 5 E-Tech (€27,990), Hyundai Inster (€29,250/$33,300)) and Kia EV2. Inovev forecasts an EV market share of 35% by 2030. Next year VW will launch the ID.2 and ID.1. Arieu said European governments are becoming increasingly worried about the damage to employment from the demise of ICE. 'There is growing support from European governments for their automotive sectors as many jobs are tied to ICE supply chains. This suggests that some European countries are likely to show greater resistance in the coming years in relation to the EU's CO2 emission targets and the broader 2035 plan to only allow zero-emission light vehicles to be sold,' Arieu said. Hyundai Inster Cross battery electric car. (Photo by Sjoerd van) 'Despite the recent flexibility introduced by the EU, the emission targets remain stringent, posing significant challenges not only for car manufacturers but also for European policymakers,' Arieu said. This move to ease the way for carmakers is not popular with green advocates like Brussels-based Transport and Environment. T&E said the recent concession was justified by 'unrepresentative' sales data for 2024. 'The EV sales rebound shows that the existing EU target is working. Require carmakers to sell more electric cars and the buyers will come. It is a mistake to change the rules in the middle of the game. This must be the last flexibility carmakers are given. Let's allow the 2030 and 2035 targets to do their work and bring affordable EVs and cleantech investment into Europe,' T&E's Julia Poliscanova said in a statement. Matt Schmidt, founder of Schmidt Automotive Research, sees some good news for Europeans. Schmidt said Volkswagen made a strong start to the year, with four of the top five EV sales in the first couple of months accounted for by its brands. VW made inroads into Tesla's market share as it face-lifted the Model Y. More good news for Europeans concerned Chinese brands, as recent sales acceleration came under pressure. Chinese EV market share rocketed from 3.8% in 2021 to 9.5% last year. 'However, since the turn of 2025, that pace has decelerated and moved into reverse as European brands roll out new products in line with the tightening EU CO2 fleet emission legislation,' Schmidt said in his latest monthly report. That relief for Europeans may be short-lived. 'Things look more positive for Sino-brands such as BYD – which will be helped by local production from the end of this year – SAIC, Geely and Chery entering the market in stealth under various alias brands such as Omoda, Ebro and Jaecoo gaining strength across the U.K. and Spain,' Schmidt said. Schmidt said West European EV sales will jump 32.6% in 2025 to 2.56 million with market share rising to 21.5% from 16.7%. In 2030 EV sales will account for 54.0% of the market or 7.1 million.
Gulf Insider
18-02-2025
- Automotive
- Gulf Insider
German Cars Lose Their ‘Premium' Status in China
After decades of dominating China's market for high-performance cars with precision engineering, German automakers are losing out to Chinese rivals that have shifted the definition of a high-end car to one that is electric, smart and affordable. Many new Chinese vehicles resemble their German rivals, like the wildly popular Xiaomi SU7, which mimics Porsche's Taycan. The SU7 rivals the Taycan in power and braking, but it also includes integrated artificial intelligence that can, for instance, help with parking and greet drivers with their favorite song. The cherry on top: It sells for roughly half the price of a Taycan. As a result, the German automakers that for decades commanded China's premium car market are now seeing their sales dwindle, while Xiaomi — a leading Chinese smartphone manufacturer — last year sold more than 100,000 models of the SU7. Among the hardest hit has been Porsche, which reported last month that its deliveries in China plunged 28 percent in 2024. Although Porsche's sales were up in every other region around the world, the decline in China was significant enough to pull down its global deliveries for the year by 3 percent. For years, German automakers relied on the Chinese market to make up for weaker demand elsewhere, leading them to ignore deeper structural problems at home. Chief among them was a reluctance to adopt the technology that has come to define driving in China: electric vehicles equipped with sophisticated software and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. 'The German, but also the American and the Japanese-Korean, established Western manufacturers have greatly underestimated the development dynamics of the Chinese manufacturers, namely in the important fields of electro-mobility and software-defined vehicles,' said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center for Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. Market experts said advances in software and features such as automated driving and remote control had become standard in Chinese electric cars, pressuring European automakers used to cashing in on their brand names to step up their game. 'I think Chinese consumers right now are ready to accept that Chinese companies can produce cars that are considered as premium to them,' said Gary Ng, an economist with Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking. Click here to read more…
