The problems facing the car industry keep stacking up: new competition from China, Government pressure to go electric, threats of tariffs, and a customer base that’s as confused as it is cash-strapped.
It’s enough to make even the most balanced car company board member retreat to the executive washroom, bury their head in the monogrammed Egyptian cotton hand towels and have a good, long scream.
While hair is being torn out in meeting rooms throughout the automotive world, opportunities are presenting themselves for the canny car buyer. Makers still need to sell cars – these vehicles will be rolling off the production line regardless, and if customers aren’t biting, there’s a pressing need to sweeten the bait.
That’s why we’re seeing increasingly tempting finance offers and some serious price-cutting on brand-new cars. If you’ve been paying attention to Auto Express over recent months, you’ll know about the ZEV mandate and its requirement for makers to ensure that 22 per cent of the new cars they sold in 2024 were electric. In 2025 it’ll be 28 per cent, and it’ll be 80 per cent by 2030.
This is why top brands are slashing electric car prices, and why, if you were to walk into a showroom this weekend and express a tentative interest in buying a new electric car, you’d be engulfed in a swarm of eager sales personnel faster than you could say “deposit contribution”.
