BEEP, BEEP, ELON!
Watch out, Elon: Volkswagen and Toyota have you in their sights, with both announcing Wednesday major new investments in electric vehicles to compete against market-leader Tesla.
Chrysler, too, said it would aim for an all-electric fleet.
As environmental concerns — and high gas prices — take center stage, more people are turning to electric cars, and legacy automakers are looking to make challenge Tesla’s reported 79 percent EV market in the US.
Now VW and Toyota plan to invest a combined $170 billion in the next few years as part of a strategy to scale up their transition from internalcombustion engines to battery-powered vehicles.
A ‘current’ affair
A Pew Research Center survey of Americans released in June said 39 percent said they’d be at least somewhat likely to buy an electric vehicle the next time they buy a car or truck. The survey said about 7 percent of people currently drive an EV.
For its part, VW, the world’s largest automaker, generating some $280 billion in revenue per year, announced a five-year, $100 billion spending plan, including investments in software development and electric technology.
Toyota, meanwhile — the world’s second-largest automaker — is also revving up its EV production. The Japanese company, whose brand dethroned General Motors last year to become the highest-selling vehicles in the United States, is planning a $70 billion spending spree with the hope of producing a line of 30 electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
And Fiat Chrysler, which is owned by Europe’s Stellantis, plans go all-electric by 2028, becoming the latest automaker to announce a shift away from gasoline-powered
engines under rising pressure to act on climate change.
The challengers will have their work cut out for them, particularly in light of Tesla’s impressive quarterly report earlier this week that indicated a record number of vehicle deliveries.
In the driver’s seat
Tesla delivered 308,600 vehicles during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021, easily surpassing analysts’ projections. Overall, Tesla shipped 936,172 cars to customers last
year — an 87 percent increase from the previous year. Both the yearly and quarterly results are company records.
In October, Musk appeared to offer an olive branch to competitors when he accepted an invitation to appear via teleconference at a meeting of 200 VW execs. Musk, who is planning to open a Tesla plant in Berlin, praised VW and expressed confidence it will make a smooth transition into EVs.
And Tesla doesn’t appear content to rest on its laurels. It’s also planning a $188-million investment to upgrade a
plant in Shanghai so that it will be able to produce more than 450,000 units per year.
Tesla’s stock, meanwhile, has surged over the past year, even as it’s stumbled so far in 2022. It’s up nearly 50 percent over the past year, though it fell on Wednesday by more than 5 percent after the news of its revved-up competitors.
Musk has seen his net worth rise sharply with Tesla’s share price: His holdings rose to more than $304 billion — becoming the first person to ever reach the $300 billion milestone.