Nothing to do: the electric doesn’t work. To realize this, just look at the sales data of two emblems of Made in Italy: Ferrari and Fiat 500.
Numbers which, after the initial surprise, make it clear how much the electricity transition imposed by Brussels clashes with reality. That is, with the tastes and economic resources of consumers. Because, as Milano Finanza reports, while in 2023 Ferrari sold 13,663 examples for almost 6 billion euros in revenues, or 1,110 models per month (1,138 to be precise), Stellantis delivered only one hundred 500 electric cars in Italy in April.
Figures that demonstrate how strong the demand is for a luxury brand like that of the Prancing Horse – whose least expensive model costs 260 thousand euros, ten times as much as the 500 – and how stifled the demand is for the car that made the home fortune Agnelli in the years of the economic boom. And perhaps this is also why Exor, the family safe led by John Elkann, has chosen to leave the helm to the French PSA in Stellantis. In fact, Exor holds 26.4% of Ferrari, a share that this year will yield a dividend of around 108 million euros.
Not only. Because the Maranello company makes profits and sales. The stock has grown by 193% in the last five years and by 38% in 2024 alone. In short, the point is the following: given that it is above all the price that discourages purchases of electric cars, how can we reverse this trend? As Renault’s number one, the Italian Luca de Meo, explained, Europe must stop producing regulations and instead do like the USA and China which massively incentivize their own industries (especially the automotive one).
Here too, a few figures are enough to understand the sidereal distance that separates the Old Continent from the other two great powers. For years now, China has been investing heavily in all sectors involved in the electric car production cycle, from the processing of raw materials (such as lithium, cobalt and rare earths) to the production of batteries. Beijing also subsidizes local builders and distributes important incentives to consumers for purchases.
A strategy that is bearing fruit. The country has a now undisputed competitive advantage in the entire electric vehicle production chain. A few numbers are enough to understand China’s excessive power in the sector. China controls 75% of the world’s battery production capacity, 80 to 90% of raw materials refining and 50% of rare metals mining.
The United States has also moved in a similar way. Just think of the Inflation Reduction Act program, with which the American administration has allocated 387 billion dollars to encourage investments in green technologies, including electric vehicles, as long as production takes place on national territory with components in turn made in the USA. In short, this complex of elements explains the narrowness of the Italian electric car market (just 3% of the total) and therefore the low number of sales, including 500. At the same time, however, these are conditions that do not affect the success of Ferrari, which is not bound by European emissions reduction regulations.
