① On February 28, Aston Martin announced that the company plans to launch its first pure electric vehicle in 2026, which is one year later than the original target of 2025. ② A week earlier, Ola Källenius (Ola Källenius), chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said that the company will continue to update and replace its traditional fuel vehicle matrix within the next ten years.
Finance Association, Feb. 29 (Reporter Liu Yang) At a time when domestic NEV companies continue to “boom,” foreign brands are still hesitating about electrification.
On February 28, Aston Martin announced that the company plans to launch its first pure electric vehicle in 2026, which is one year later than the original target of 2025. It's easy to see that even though it promised last year that it would invest around £2 billion in electrification over the next five years, Aston Martin was unable to achieve this goal.
Under the wave of electrification in the automotive industry, Aston Martin's transformation path can be described as full of ups and downs. As early as 2015, the company's first all-electric coupe, the Rapide E, was unveiled as a concept car; in 2017, Aston Martin announced that it would produce a limited production of 155 units of this model, which will be produced and delivered at the end of 2019. But after that, plans for the car were put on hold. In April 2022, Aston Martin announced the “RacingGreen” strategy. It is expected to officially deliver its first plug-in hybrid model, the Valhalla, in early 2024, and launch the first pure electric model in 2025. Meanwhile, it is expected that by 2026, all of its new models will have plug-in hybrid or pure electric versions.
“Aston Martin delayed the launch of its first all-electric vehicle due to an unstable financial situation and low demand.” According to industry insiders, for Aston Martin, the electrification layout is a new field, and there are many uncertainties about the future. “Although the brand has many core technologies, it is more reflected in the field of fuel vehicles. Can technical barriers continue after the transition to electrification, or have all been lost since then? In this process, there are still a lot of risks Aston Martin will have to face.”
As competition in the electric vehicle market intensified, between aggressive transformation and maintaining profit and brand power, Mercedes-Benz was also forced to choose the latter. A week earlier, Ola Källenius (Ola Källenius), chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said that it will take many years to parallel the costs and prices of traditional fuel vehicles with electric vehicles. “Therefore, the company will continue to update and replace its traditional fuel vehicle matrix within the next ten years.”
At the same time, Mercedes-Benz has also lowered its expectations for the mid-term development of the electric vehicle sector. Currently, it is expected that by the second half of the 2120s, sales of electric vehicles, including hybrid vehicles, will account for 50% of its total sales. Previously, the target was set to be achieved in 2025. Mercedes-Benz predicts that in 2024, the sales share of the company's pure electric models and plug-in hybrid models will be roughly the same, at around 19%-21%.
“(Mercedes-Benz)'s electrification transformation goals are based on market conditions and customer needs. The previous goals also emphasized that they needed to be (achieved) when the market allows.” In response, the relevant person in charge of Mercedes-Benz said that the future product lineup of Mercedes-Benz will be based on the diverse needs of customers. The company is confident in electrification transformation and will maintain strategic focus and tactical flexibility.
BNEF expects global sales of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles to reach 16.7 million units in 2024, a decrease of 775,000 units compared to previous forecasts. As the growth rate of electric vehicle sales around the world has slowed, many automobile companies have adjusted their strategic direction. In July 2023, Ford Motor Company announced the postponement of production targets for electric vehicles; at the end of last year, Audi's new CEO Gernot Dollner (Gernot Dollner) said it would continue to promote internal combustion engine vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the short term. According to other sources, in February of this year, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Madel said that the company will slow down the development of pure electric models and plans to launch more plug-in hybrid models.
“Some multinational companies have clear strategies and are very slow. Because they are still making a lot of money by selling fuel vehicles, the development of electric vehicles is being squeezed by Chinese companies, so they are hesitating.” Ouyang Minggao, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 People's Association, pointed out that electrification is a product of equal rights in science and technology. Once technology is equal, the monopoly will be broken, and everyone can build cars. “Big international companies all want to build moats to raise the threshold so that no one else can get in, because only technology monopolies can earn high profits.”
The latest report jointly released by the China Electric Vehicle 100 People's Association and McKinsey shows that in 2030, Chinese car companies are expected to occupy multiple seats in the top ten car companies in global sales. One of its core drivers is the speed of innovation: especially in China, where competition is fierce, leading NEV companies will continue to iterate 2-3 generations of products on the basis of their current leadership.