And the Loser 2023 is ...
The automotive year 2023 has highs and lows, winners and losers. Which markets are resilient, which are weak? Which car manufacturer(s) is/are coping best with the difficult market conditions - and who is falling behind?
Ever since the invention of the Olympic Games around 2800 years ago in honor of the gods, competition and the desire to win have been in the human genes. Today, of course, this also applies to "Homo Oeconomicus". Instead of "faster, higher, further", however, everything revolves around more growth in sales, profit, market share and the top position in the ranking of large and powerful competitors on the market.
So, broken down to the automotive industry: who is the winner of the automotive year 2023, who has lost? This question will be explored here.
A look at the industry
The IAA Mobility in Munich in September 2023 already shows impressively: the winner of the year is the Chinese automotive industry, while the loser is the German automotive industry. The bare figures underpin China's supremacy: The Middle Kingdom is by far the largest producer of motor vehicles. In 2022, 23.8 million cars were produced, in 2023 it is expected to be around 26 million, around 6 million of which will be electric, which in turn corresponds to an e-car global market share of around 60 percent.
The driving force behind China's automotive industry is the domestic market: a total of 25 million new registrations are expected to be recorded in 2023, which corresponds to almost one in three new vehicles worldwide. In October alone, more than 2.46 million new cars were sold in China - more than in the USA and the EU combined. In other words, as many new cars were sold in China in one month as in Germany in almost an entire year.
However, the fact that Germany is lagging behind China's car sales market in purely numerical terms is nothing new. However, the fact that the German car industry lost its technologically innovative global supremacy to China in 2023 is new. China, the world champion in electric cars, has overtaken Germany, the former world champion in combustion engines. When it comes to electromobility, China is superior to German car manufacturers in all respects: in terms of electric and battery technology, the availability of raw materials, production costs and mass motorization in the form of smaller electric cars. The German car industry does not have any of this, apart from a few exotic, high-priced premium electric cars.
And what is threatening for the domestic car industry: in Germany, the production of electric cars is being cut back, shifts are being reduced and production lines are at a standstill. In China, on the other hand, the production of electric cars is running at full speed. The exhibitions and shows are overflowing with brands, models and visitors. Established manufacturers and start-ups are constantly bringing new vehicles and variants onto the market, with which they are also pushing into Europe.
A look at the manufacturers
Looking at the individual car manufacturers, the big winner internationally is BYD. The Chinese high-flyer with the well-known marketing slogan "Build Your Dreams" is estimated to have displaced industry pioneer Tesla from the top spot in 2023 with around 1.9 million all-electric vehicles (BEVs). As BYD also builds combustion engines, the company has already overtaken the German premium giants BMW and Mercedes-Benz with 2.4 million vehicles including plug-in hybrids. In November, BYD exported more than 30,000 electric cars abroad for the first time. A record. For the year as a whole, this is likely to be more than 200,000 export units, which in turn represents a fourfold increase compared to 2022. Growth outside China - and with vehemence! BYD has long had its sights set on the European market and, like Tesla, also wants to build its own vehicles here. Whether this will be in Saarland or Hungary has not yet been finalized.
But there is also a winner on the German side, chosen by the industry magazine "Automobilwoche": BMW. For the second time since 2021, the Munich-based company is the "Winner of the Year" in the "Car Manufacturer of the Year 2023" category. BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said: "At BMW, the future and the present come from a single source."
Nothing to add to that. But the losers in 2023 were Tesla and Volkswagen. The German industry leader, the benchmark in the Middle Kingdom for decades, continued to lose ground in China.
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- Despite the strong performance of BYD, known for its slogan "Build Your Dreams", leading electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla Motors faced a setback in 2023, struggling to maintain its top position in the global EV market.
- Germany's automobile giant Volkswagen also experienced difficulties in 2023, as the Association of the Automotive Industry reported a decline in market share for traditional combustion engine vehicles compared to emerging players in the EV sector, such as Hyundai and BYD.
- Helmut Becker, a prominent industry expert, criticized the lack of innovation and investment in electric vehicle research and development within the German automotive industry, highlighting the growing supremacy of Chinese manufacturers like BYD in the field of electromobility.
Source: www.ntv.de
