Casting trends in the automotive industry will feature among the crucial focal themes of the world’s leading foundry trade fair GIFA held as part of the Bright World of Metals in Düsseldorf from 12th to 16th June 2023, writes Gerd Krause, Mediakonzept Düsseldorf.
Elon Musk with Tesla is a prominent example of e-mobility re-shuffling the cards in the automotive market. But experts doubt that newcomers will ring the death knell for established automakers.
“The Chinese and Tesla are far from delivering the growth they promised. Well-established producers like VW, BMW, Mercedes and GM have been able to stand their ground very well on the markets,” as Franz-Josef Wöstmann, head of the VDI conference ‘Casting Technology and e-Mobility’, held in Bremen (Germany) in October noted with reference to current sales statistics.
Material mix Porsche Taycan
Wöstmann, head of the department for early detection and exploitation of technologies at Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Material Research – IFAM in Bremen, reminds us that back in 2019 Tesla still seemed the unrivalled number one with 245 000 e-vehicles. Since then, the e-vehicle pioneer has been able to multiply sales by a factor of four to some 936 200 vehicles in 2021, but over the same period VW has leapt from the middle ranges to almost first place by catapulting sales from 41 000 vehicles in 2019 to 762 000.
“VW has multiplied its worldwide e-vehicle sales more than ten-fold within three years. Not even Tesla has succeeded in making such a quantum leap,” adds Wöstmann, providing food for thought.
Other long-established players like BMW and Mercedes have also succeeded in massively increasing their output. And these established players – unlike the e-mobility newcomers – have done so while also keeping an eye on their standard production. But as the statistics of the past few years show, they have very good cards and are either massively catching up, or already overtaking sales of the new entrants.
Also interesting to follow are the developments of Chinese competitors. It is true that BYD managed to double its sales but fell back from second to third place, nevertheless. BAIC even fell to near the bottom.
“The Chinese were unable to leverage their pole position despite being located on the main e-mobility market,” says Wöstmann. By contrast, tradition-rich US brand GM, which did not even figure in the 2019 statistics, made it to the midfield in that short amount of time.
