Why Car Companies May Lose $6,000 On Each EV Sold For $50,000

A new Boston Consulting Group report outlines the challenges automakers face as they scale up EV production.

For automakers small and large, old and new, transitioning to a mostly electric future has not been an easy endeavor. Or a cheap one.

With the established "legacy" car companies, this has meant ramping up battery and software operations—and learning to make EVs correctly—while keeping profits up by selling gas-powered cars. For the startups, it has meant scaling up production systems for years, typically by selling more expensive EVs first, while trying to survive long enough to even become profitable. 

So just how much money are car companies losing on EVs right now? According to one estimate from Boston Consulting Group, as much as $6,000 per EV sold around $50,000.

That data comes to us from BCG's new study, "Can OEMs Catch the Next Wave of EV Adopters?" which we also covered here. 

"We estimate that most [automakers] currently lose around $6,000 on each EV they effectively sell for $50,000, after accounting for customer tax credits," the study said. "We also estimate that [automakers] will only be able to close half of this cost gap by making the right technology choices; economies of scale as automakers ramp up production will help, too, but they won’t make up the difference."

[Read the rest at InsideEVs]