Europe’s battery industry is grappling under the strain of slower EV sales and rising, low-cost competition from Chinese firms. That has led to 160GWh of planned investment being yanked from the region since the start of the year.
Europe's
(EU + EFTA + UK) passenger EV sales rose just 1.6% on-year in the first half of
the year to 1.4m. EV penetration slipped a touch to 21%, from 22% a year
ago.
A
lowering of incentives and broader economic pressures have been blamed for
slower sales growth—Germany’s EV sales fell by almost 9% in H1 to 273.7k. We
still expect Europe’s EV sales to grow by 6% this year to 3.35m, but that marks
a sharp slowdown from the last few years.
As
a result of car companies scaling back plans to electrify their models, we now
expect more moderate growth in European EV sales over the long-term and have
adjusted our forecasts accordingly.