ADAC complains about high small car prices, while e-cars become cheaper overall

According to the ADAC, entry-level car prices are too high. A comparison over the past ten years, the results of which were published today by Germany's largest automobile club, shows just how much they have risen. According to the results, the cheapest cars have become almost three quarters more expensive. These are conventionally powered models. Cars with electric drives are still a long way from being competitive - despite promising trends.

According to the ADAC survey, small cars with combustion engines cost an average of 13,041 euros in 2014 and 22,591 euros today. That is an increase of 73 percent. The study sees the deletion of low-cost base models and a loss of purchasing power due to high inflation as the cause. The club calculated that in 2014, around 60 percent of an average annual net income was sufficient for a new car in this category. Today it is almost 78 percent. It can be assumed that a larger proportion of potential customers will no longer be able to afford a car.

Scaled down

Battery-electric small cars are almost 7000 euros more expensive than the cheapest entry-level model with a combustion engine, costing an average of 29,457 euros. However, the automobile club sees a very slight trend in the opposite direction to the price development of combustion engines: their average price has fallen compared to the previous year's average of 32,155 euros. On the one hand, this is since the segment has expanded downwards to a certain extent due to the growth in new models. In addition, pricing has changed now that the car industry can no longer calculate its electric car prices in Germany with the inclusion of part of the subsidy bonus.

Hopes for market impetus from electric cars also seem justified for entry-level models. Within ten years, the range has grown from eight to 22. Manufacturers will primarily try to expand their market share with the help of cheaper battery technology, which, with the models already announced in this segment, is likely to increase the pressure on each other's prices in the coming years. In addition, there is a rapidly growing share of cheap, used electric cars. Elsewhere, the ADAC even writes about the segment below 30,000 euros that "the market for electric cars is developing very positively". However, it rightly complains that switching to an electric car is still too expensive for many people. The Renault Twingo, Fiat 500e with 23.8 kWh and Mini Cooper E models still lead the top 30 list of the cheapest electric cars, which the club regularly publishes. However, this is likely to change soon, as the Dacia Spring is now back in the running following its facelift. It is sure to displace one of the top three. There are also new battery-electric small car models, some of which are already available to order, such as the Citroën ë-C3, Renault 5, Skoda Epiq and the Hyundai Inster.

A price war is not to be expected in the conventional segment, where the industry has reduced the range by around a third from 80 to just 55 small car models with combustion engines. Small cars are not a priority for the industry due to their low margins. In addition, technical advances comparable to those in the field of battery technology are no longer being made by the fundamentally mature combustion engines. In the club's comparison list, the Dacia Sandero tops the list at 404 euros per month, followed by the Mitsubishi Space Star at 446 euros and the Mazda 2 at 464 euros per month.

(fpi)