La nuova auto economica è scomparsa in Germania
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-07/germany-s-soaring-auto-prices-put-new-cars-out-of-reach-for-many
di bloomberg
La nuova auto economica è scomparsa in Germania
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-11-07/germany-s-soaring-auto-prices-put-new-cars-out-of-reach-for-many
di bloomberg
13 commenti
*From Bloomberg News reporters William Wilkes and Jinshan Hong*
In the gritty German industrial city of Bochum, a family-run car dealership once counted small affordable vehicles as its bread and butter, but it has adapted to deepening inequalities by no longer selling factory-fresh hatchbacks and wagons at all.
Sticker prices on new models have risen faster than wages in recent years, adding to other cost-of-living increases on everything from housing to food and energy. The combination has squeezed spending power and put new vehicles out of reach for Auto Feix’s working-class clientele in Bochum, once the home of a thriving budget-car factory.
“Customers simply have less money in their pockets,” said Kerstin Feix, managing director of the nearly century-old company. “For many, a brand-new car is no longer affordable.”
Dacia?
Good news!
The Dacia Sandero exists.
The budget car dissapeared during the post covid chip supply chain shocks, they gave priority to the more expensive trims and because western car manufacturers are in reality finance companies that sell cars, they just stay that way and make more money through the interests from the bigger car loans.
The bigger the price, the bigger the loan, the bigger the profit for the car manufacturers, they have all the incentives to not to offer cheap cars, that’s why the Chinese brands are swamping that segment, they have no competition.
Not a big surprise as the emission norms make them too expensive to produce
Germany is clinging to dying industries that are rapidly falling apart, with a force I’ve rarely seen.
So I’m actually surprised there’s no subventions happening to boost the car industry on the consumer entry level. Well it’s probably coming at one point. And as always: way too late and when everyone already accepted the fate of the automobile industry in Germany.
Meanwhile Germany is sitting on massive resource reserves desperately needed in the current age. But they stay untapped because for some reasons nobody understands, we just have to cling to those industries that built up the country post-WW2…
Probably I’ll never buy a new car. As my kids get older and go to school by themselves and I use public transportation everyday it doesn’t makes much sense an new investment in a new car. Better use taxi/uber when needed. And in my country , traffic is a problem for my mental health as it gets much more chaotic everyday .
We need fewer people to drive cars for many reasons. In particular, we need to be less dependent on imports of gassoline and Chinese IC chips. Ergo, this is good news.
You can buy good ebikes from 1000 EUR at Decathalon. 300 ebikes could be build using the batteries required for one Tesla 3. Also they need way less other parts that give China leverage over us, like far fewer IC chips and much smaller batteries.
If you need a vehicle to carry work tools or similar, then you’re more impacted by this shift. I think Renault’s Kangoo electric van is 33,000 EUR though, so not unreaosnable as a buisness expense.
This was by design in the west. They all saw an opportunity to try obtain Tesla profit margins, selling the dream of EV’s, car sharing. China continues to operate on the traditional profit margin. Their rise has caught these manufacturers with their pants down (fucking us consumers). They’ll adjust but it’s going to take a few years as new vehicle models take a few years to get to the showroom floor.
First: The only solution is to re-start zero emission-subsidies again for EV’s (also for used) like it was.
Second: apply import tariffs on Chinese EV’s and subsidies only apply for non- Chinese EV’s
Europe has to realize:
– buying Chinese EV’s and -parts, funds the war with Russia via China and improves China’s economy in general.
– buying Chinese EV’s kills the German car industry, which is the largest factor of the German economy. Germany is Western Europe’s largest economy.
[On Lubach (prominent Dutch TV show: entertainment mixed current affair. Use CC for Eng subs)](https://youtu.be/ws6fOvPJMas?si=ZGrA5C6eCCdhPLSL)
There is so many regulations now that it’s impossible to make cheap cars. They killed all the fun cars for normal people too
EU emission standards killed it. They added literally thousands of Euros to a price of a new car, if the fleet average bla bla. This increased the price of subcompacts like Yaris, Polo, Clio, 206, Mazda 2,… to where compact SUVs were, like they moved from 12k€ to almost 20k€
At the same time most BEVs are huge and expensive models. Nothing in subcompact size and price range. Plus their resale vale and longevity leave a lot to be desired, making their ownership less attractive.
Omoda 5