From the importer's experience and conference, Graziano said...

From the importer's experience and conference, Graziano said that they expect B2B market to continue to grow but in a linear way, while B2C market is set to grow exponentially.
He also said that, while the South American and Asian markets offer tremendous opportunities, VMT are focused mainly on the European market. This because they see Europe as the market where they can test and innovate (design and technology) and then export that to other markets.
I understood this to say that:
1- They want to build a European brand, focused on B2C.
2- Developing markets (including India and Indonesia) may be large markets, but... (let-others-take-the-risk...)
3- B2B is more competitive and smaller market.
4- Other than China (which is very competitive) Europe is the market that has set clearer laws about the total ICE vehicles ban, in 2035, with progressive penalties starting much earlier. Europe is also a market that is proven to be profitable. (I may add that being too dependent on subsidies is not good).
5-There will be an inter period of sluggish demand for EVs in the near future.

Point 5 also makes me think about the Big ICE manufactures which are now having to pull the plug on their EV ambitions because of the short term uncertainty. The American ICE manufacturers, in particular, are heavily biased by their double interest in selling quite profitable petrol vehicles and they try to be pragmatic saying that they only invest in what makes economic sense. They are also biased by their country's lack of energy transition policy and commitment, as they profit from oil more than anyone else. The reality in my view is that they have difficulties in running two types of businesses, developing ICE and EV increases their costs, they quickly become uncompetitive VS pure EV manufacturers and they need to maintain their investors happy by pretending to be rational. But this may well be a bad move that will set them back a few more years. Short term uncertainty may give them an advantage because consumers demand will flow towards cheap ICE, but assuming that this trend will continue to 2030 and beyond, is not correct, in my view.
More specifically, VMT gave me no impression to be interested in the North American market atm, certainly not a priority. They lack the product offering north Americans want.