This is the kind of news that non-brilliant people like eugened...

This is the kind of news that non-brilliant people like eugened trust. An extract from the link provided:

"Companies may cut back more on planned factories as European Union subsidies are hard to access due to bureaucracy and carmakers protect thin EV profit margins."

Then you read that Carlos Tavares, from the "leading automotive industry in the world" (irony) has the one of the biggest salary in the sector:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/stellantis-ceo-received-365-million-euros-2023-total-compensation-2024-02-22/

Also, carmarkers released that their benefits are at all times highs:

https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/euro-7-carmakers-record-profits-made-at-expense-of-human-health

Together the five carmakers’ 2022 profits (€64 billion) were more than double 2019’s (€28 billion), despite selling 25% fewer cars than before covid and rising inflation. While supply chain issues are blamed for lower car production volumes, carmakers have been vocal about their shift in strategy away from selling as many mass market cars as possible towards selling fewer but larger, premium cars with higher profit margins. This includes scrapping production of popular, more affordable, small cars such as the Fiat Punto, VW Beetle and Citroën Picasso. Due to a lack of supply and strong demand, carmakers have also been increasing prices. This shift in strategy has resulted in:

• BMW’s profit margin almost trippled from 4.6% in 2019 to 12.6% in 2022.
• Mercedes’ profit margin increased from 6.8% in 2019 to 9.5% in 2022.
• Renault’s profit margin increased from 0.4% in 2019 to 4.8% in 2022.
• Stellantis’s profit margin more than doubled from 4.0% in 2019 to 9.9% in 2022.
• VW’s profit margin increased from 5.6% in 2019 to 5.9% in 2022.
• 
  

The increase in profit margins shows that carmakers are making more money on every car sold than prior to the covid crisis. This accounts for inflation, meaning that it is not due to increases in the costs of raw materials, energy or production but due to, for example, carmakers increasing prices above inflation or selling a higher share of premium cars with higher profit margins. Despite lower car sales, the increase in profit margins is resulting in higher profits than when vehicle sales were higher before the covid crisis.

Carmakers are engaged in a disinformation campaign to frighten policy makers, simultaneously claiming that Euro 7 will make cars unaffordable for consumers, while hiking prices and scrapping smaller models in favour of higher profits on larger, more expensive premium models. The true cost of these business decisions will be paid by millions of Europeans who have to breathe unnecessarily high levels of toxic pollution.

If they have "thin EV profit margins" is because they are making EV with an ICE in mind. They should have a look at Tesla´s production to understand that EVs are cheaper to produce than ICEs. That is the only explanation for Tesla's unrivalled gross margins in the sector:

https://fiatgroupworld.com/2023/04/26/ferrari-and-tesla-the-worlds-most-profitable-carmakers/

The European carmarkers are lobbying to maintain their bussiness model.