The sales of electric vehicles grow every month. And they do it in all markets, the European, the American, the Chinese. The increasing supply of electric models, advertising campaigns and emissions legislation is helping buyers no longer see the purchase of an electric car as a sacrifice but rather as one more option to consider. This scenario is favored by the multi-million dollar investments from traditional manufacturers in the creation of specific platforms, the development of electric models from scratch and the manufacture of batteries. One manufacturer with no combustion heritage, Tesla, dominates the market, but everyone else they want to change that.
Traditional manufacturers have chosen different strategies to maximize their share of the electric vehicle market. One of them is to offer a electric variant with the same appearance as the combustion ones, so that the user does not have to adapt to new designs. Another is to create different new models, electric only, with a new design based on technology and differentiation. Others are trying to exploit their most iconic models to rescue them from the past and give them a second life as electric vehicles, based on a vintage and technological design.
Ford is having quite a bit of success with its first all-electric model. Your strategy here is use a new design based on the name of the iconic Mustang It is part of the history of the brand. The Mustang Mach-E inherits some traits from its combustion namesake, but it’s a new electric car that has been very well received by customers. Along with it, although for now only in America, the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pick-up appears as a variant equipped with this technology that completes the range of the brand’s best-selling model.
Toyota is trying to capitalize on its image as a safe and efficient brand based on its conventional hybrid models. Although it seemed reluctant during the first years, giving up offering a fully electric model sharing a catalog with its hybrids, it has finally chosen to create a line of 100% electric cars under the umbrella of a new denomination bZ (beyond Zero) which continues to exploit the “electric brand” image that Toyota claims for its hybrids.
Whatever the strategy, financial support is needed behind it, which translates into investments of billions in a few years. Here’s a quick rundown of what some of the biggest manufacturers are putting into electric mobility in their race to beat Tesla, which still holds the stranglehold on electric vehicle market share.
Over the next five years, Volkswagen will spend around €73 billion in electrification and digital technology. With its current offering already made up of several models from the ID family and those to be joined in the coming months, the German automaker is seeing strong demand with global sales up 27% in the first half of 2022.
Toyota has announced that it will spend 8 billion yen (around 70,000 million euros) to develop up to 30 different models and reach its goal of having 3.5 million electric cars circulating on the roads of the world by 2030. This investment will not only be dedicated to creating new models, batteries are also part of its strategy focusing above all on making the solid electrolyte viable.
General Motors has announced that it will spend 35,000 million dollars until 2025 in electric vehicles and battery technology. Meanwhile, together with LG and using the $2.5 billion DOE loan, it will build three battery factories in the United States.
Ford will invest $5 billion in 2022 only in electric vehicles. In addition, the company plans to inject other 50,000 million until 2026 in capital investments (CAPEX), direct investments and other expenses
