Car making has always been one of the biggest cash-eating industries globally and margins have typically been slim, even in the good times.
The shift to electric cars is a big fat tick in the ‘bad times’ column, as least as far as global firms' accounts departments go. Profits are being munched as cheap combustion engines are sidelined for expensive batteries.
However, battery prices having been falling for a while now, with lithium prices in particular having dropped 85% from their peak in 2022, according to data from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
