European manufacturers all decided to focus on higher costs vehicles after Covid-19 because margins are slightly higher and they make more on the financing. They have intentionally deserted the entry market.

Now, sales numbers are starting to plummet so I fully expect to see them blame everything from regulators to China unfair exports rather than admit it’s just a normal consequence of their own strategy.

Add to that that most of them have intentionally not taken the shift towards electric and away from diesel that the regulation forced on them, you get a pretty bleak picture. But, on that point, it seems that Germany will as usual cave in and drag the whole EU down with them so they might have been right.

>most car manufacturers have 3-10% gross margins.

I remember some analysis saying that it is true for classic versions like sedan. But on SUVs it is a couple of times bigger...