Live Markets: German automakers sputter amid China shock and EV pivot
LIVE MARKETS-German automakers sputter amid China shock and EV pivot .
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GERMAN AUTOMAKERS SPUTTER AMID CHINA SHOCK AND EV PIVOT
It’s been a rough few years for German carmakers, which were hit hard by the Ukraine war energy shock, and Goldman Sachs says things aren’t getting much easier. That’s a major worry for the country’s lacklustre economy, where the sector makes up 2% of employment and 4% of value added.
China is now a huge exporter of cars and is piling the pressure on German producers in foreign markets, where its EV and hybrid sales are booming. Just witness the rise of Chery’s Jaecoo 7 , the ‘Temu Range Rover’, in the UK.
Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Wednesday that substantial subsidies help support China’s carmakers, with producer price indices falling more than 20% relative to European manufacturers since 2022. What’s more, U.S. tariffs have slowed exports to that potentially enormous market.
Battery EVs and plug-in hybrids now make up almost 40% of German production, Goldman said. “Yet electric engines require less labour, and a high share of batteries is imported – squeezing domestic employment and value added,” analysts at the bank wrote.
If these headwinds continue to weigh on the relative contribution of the sector, value added in the autos industry could fall by 8% by 2030, creating a 0.1 percentage point annual drag on aggregate growth. That could double if China really revs its engines and pulls further ahead in the race for new market share.
(Harry Robertson)
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