Hyundai is keeping a watching brief on electric vehicle pricing, UK boss Ashley Andrew has admitted in the wake of increased discounts and incentives being applied by rivals as they seek to maintain sales momentum.
In January, Tesla signalled the highest-profile discounts when it slashed up to £8000 off the price of its cars. At the time, rivals predicted that the move would backfire as it would undermine residuals and, in turn, lease payments.
However, data from What Car? suggests that many rival manufacturers have subsequently responded, albeit more covertly by offering low interest rate deals, dealer and manufacturer incentives and more. The average discount of an EV’s price is now 3.1% or £1805 - the highest it has ever been.
Furthermore, EV discounts are around 25% higher than at this time last year, with most manufacturers offering some kind of incentive to buyers. However, mystery shoppers from What Car? have found only a small discount on the Ioniq 5.
“We're fortunate to have new, desirable products - and a long bank of orders to reflect that,” said Andrew. “But we are keeping a close eye on order take, as well as modelling the existing supply agreements and renewals that we have in place, but we’re not seeing an immediate need to respond.”
However, he acknowledged that a combination of Tesla’s cuts, increasing stock availability, the cost of living crisis, rising electricity prices and negative headlines around the charging infrastructure could mean the company has to respond, particularly with the prospect of the zero emission mandate being introduced from 2024, potentially requiring all car companies to hit a 22% EV sales target that year, with the proportion ramping up thereafter.
“I think it’s more something we will have to consider in the second half of the year, as we assess our pipeline of orders,” said Andrew. “We have to be realistic to the market and acknowledge there has been a combination of factors impacting.
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