Ford Declares Development of New Hybrid Vehicle On the 28th (local time), Jim Farley,
CEO
(CEO) of Ford, one of the “Big 3” automobile companies in the US, announced the second quarter results and said, “We will introduce more hybrid vehicles in the future.” said Ford was the company that most actively promoted the transition to electric vehicles, with the goal of producing 2 million electric vehicles per year by 2026. Ford has declared that it will develop a hybrid that will serve as a ‘bridge’ in the process of moving towards electric cars. In the industry, it was interpreted as Ford’s electric vehicle speed control. As the era of electric vehicles opens in earnest, interest in hybrid vehicles is also growing. As major companies scrambled to release electric cars, interest in eco-friendly cars grew. Electric cars are much more expensive than internal combustion cars and are inconvenient to charge, whereas hybrid cars have fewer such disadvantages and are preferred by consumers. Companies are also burdened by the cost and profitability of converting to electric vehicles, as well as intensifying sales competition. With the recent slowdown in electric vehicle sales, some predict that hybrid sales may increase for the time being until electric vehicles become completely popular. It is a rediscovery of hybrid cars.
◇Hybrid powerhouse performance at an all-time high
In the automotive industry, the side effects of the rapid transition to electric vehicles are appearing one after another. In the case of Ford, it lost $4.5 billion (5.75 trillion won) in the electric vehicle sector alone in the second quarter of this year. Germany’s Volkswagen Group also announced at the end of last month that it would convert 300 full-time employees at its plant in Emden, Germany, which produces electric vehicles, to non-regular workers and reduce some of its production. This was due to a decrease in demand for electric vehicles by around 30% compared to the company’s forecast.
On the other hand, Toyota, Hyundai Motor and Kia produced good performance in the first half based on hybrid vehicles. In the case of Toyota, it was ridiculed as an ‘electric car inferior’ for several years as it released a model exclusively for electric vehicles late. However, as of the first half of this year, it ranked first in global sales for four consecutive years. Electric cars are late, but this is thanks to the fact that hybrids are still selling well. Sales of hybrid cars, which were 1,305,912 units in the first half of 2021, increased by 27% to 1,661,774 units in the first half of this year메이저사이트. During the same period, the share of hybrids in total sales increased from 26% to 34%.
Hyundai Motor and Kia recorded the highest operating profit of over 14 trillion won in the first half of the year. This is thanks to sales of 346,765 hybrid cars in the global market, up 43 percent from last year. In particular, sales of hybrid cars in the US soared by 69%. Electric car sales increased only 11%. Germany’s Mercedes-Benz and BMW are still introducing plug-in hybrid vehicles that can be charged by adding an electric motor to the internal combustion engine, or mild hybrid vehicles in which an electric motor plays an auxiliary role as flagship models.
◇Electric vehicles enter low-cost competition
Unlike hybrids, there are many prospects that the ‘chicken game’ in which each other will lower car prices for the time being will continue in the electric car market. When consumers hesitate to purchase an electric car because of the high price, they respond by reducing the price of the car to increase sales. This is because EV sales are slowing and profits are not large, but it is difficult to recover if it loses its initial market share. Tesla, which sells only pure electric vehicles, recorded 343,000 global sales in the first half of this year, up 50% from the same period last year, but its operating profit margin (9.6%) in the second quarter fell to single digits for the first time in two years in the aftermath of price cuts that began at the end of last year. .
The competition to develop low-cost electric vehicles is also expected to intensify. Volkswagen has declared that it will develop an electric vehicle worth around 25,000 euros (about 36 million won) within 2 to 3 years, and General Motors (GM) will also release an Equinox EV worth about 30,000 dollars (about 39 million won) in the second half of this year. Is expected. An official from the automobile industry said, “Unless battery prices drop dramatically, if you sell electric vehicles at a discount, losses will inevitably accumulate.”