The positive note, not the only one, is that it will definitely get better from next month. In fact, for the last time the car market statistics discount the comparison with the numbers of the season that preceded the outbreak of the contagion that paralyzed the four-wheel industry in Europe last March. Starting next month, the comparison figure, the benchmark, will be much lower and the plus sign will reappear. Modest consolation, because i thrilling numbers (-19,3% registrations in the Old Continent, the worst figure in the last eight years) indicate that the recovery of the sector is still far off. Not only because of the depth of the fall, given that it has gone from an abundant million pieces sold (1,07 million to be exact) to 850.107, but also because the "ammunition", i.e. the incentives made available to governments, France in the lead, they are running out. Just like in Italy, where however the funds allocated with the Budget law avoided the worst: the Italian market, down by 12,1% in February, was the most resilient, against the slowdown in Germany (-19% ), France (-20,9%) and the landslide in Spain (-38,4%).
But to place a heavy mortgage on the collection in a short time is the “hunger” for semiconductors, the key components of the car in the electronic age, today practically unobtainable. Just to evaluate the weight of the problem, it suffices to say that Herbert Diess, the number one of Volkswagen who remains the most important manufacturer, has quantified in 100 thousand the number of cars that the group will not be able to deliver to customers in 2021, because the supply crisis will last for quite some time yet and the lines of the group will have no margin to recover within the year. In short, the strategists of the car have sinned by default, limiting the orders of components, to then discover that in the eyes of the chip industry the car is not such an important customer to be treated with special attention in the face of TLC and digital applications. In short, a part of the question cannot be covered, a real joke.
But also a consolation note that partially explains the stock market performance of the automotive sector which this morning updates the absolute highs by advancing by one and a half percentage points. On the upside it participates Stellantis +0,5%, fresh from the distribution of the extraordinary dividend linked to Faurecia, but the bull's race becomes impetuous in the case of Renault and BMW, both +3% or even more so for the flagship Volkswagen which scores an abundant 5% after yesterday's +10%, in the wake of the press conference on the group's strategies which is applying to be towed of the recovery of the four-wheeled world widely anticipated by the promises of Herbert Diess the manager who, after a bitter battle, obtained carte blanche months ago to develop the electric car strategy in his own way with all the consequences of the case. Including the early retirement of four thousand workers.
The group intends accelerate on electric mobility and predicts to activate six gigafactories in Europe for the production of batteries by 2030 in order to ensure supply in the electric vehicle segment. The plants will be built through partnerships and will have a production capacity of 240 gigawatt hours per year. In order not to run the risk of other bottlenecks such as for chips, Diess has promoted a high-risk strategy for batteries, worthy of Elon Musk, the enemy to be killed. The task of supplying new generation batteries, in fact, has been entrusted to a start-up, the Norwegian Northvolt, which will produce “unified cells” of batteries pfor the models of the Teutonic group. “We will use our economies of scale to the benefit of our customers on the battery as well. On average, we will reduce the cost of battery systems to significantly below EUR 100 per kilowatt hour,” assured board member Thomas Schmall. To this end we also bet on innovative chemical materials (such as iron phosphate or synthetic graphite) and on the optimization of production processes and recycling. Even so, the desire for revenge of the car flagship emerges, determined to erase the shame of the dieselgate once and for all.
