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Ukraine war: Tesla and Chinese rivals raise EV prices as surging nickel, lithium seep into battery costs
- Higher prices could hurt sales growth, with budget-conscious consumers shying away from expensive cars, North China University of Technology researcher says
- Tesla raised the price of the Model Y’s basic edition on Thursday, after raising the prices of two versions of the Model 3 and the long-range Model Y last week
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A wave of price hikes is sweeping China’s electric vehicle (EV) market, and is expected to dent their sales in the world’s largest automobiles market.
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The sky-high prices of nickel and lithium, key materials used to make EV batteries, have forced carmakers ranging from global leader Tesla to Anhui province-based Chery Automobile to raise prices and pass on the higher costs to buyers.
Concerns about supply-chain disruptions has roiled global commodity prices over the past month as Russia invaded Ukraine, sending oil to 2008-high while others like nickel and wheat hit unprecedented levels. Tsingshan Group’s wrong-way bets on nickel prices also lent chaos to trading at the London Metal Exchange.
“They need to raise prices to maintain their profit margins,” said David Zhang, a car industry researcher at the North China University of Technology. “But higher vehicle prices could hurt sales growth, with budget-conscious consumers shying away from expensive cars.”
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Chinese smart-battery swap stations can change EV batteries automatically
Chinese smart-battery swap stations can change EV batteries automatically
Last month, Cui Dongshu, general secretary of the China Passenger Car Association, said the sales of new-energy vehicles – pure electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell cars – in China would jump 84 per cent to 5.5 million units this year. Zhang forecasts a moderate 47 per cent gain.
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