Dear reader,
Elon Musk (52) kept his fingers crossed for Michaela Schmitz in vain. The head of the works council at the Tesla factory in Grünheide wanted to keep IG Metall, which had previously had no significant influence at Tesla, small. The union places Schmitz closer to management than to the grassroots. In the run-up to the works council election, Musk had once again stirred up a strong mood against the metal workers during a visit to Grünheide (“They can’t stop us!”
).
Thanks to 39.4 percent of the votes, IG Metall will still be the strongest group in the committee with 16 of 39 members. Although the union cannot govern, things are likely to no longer just be unpleasant for Musk and his management team in Brandenburg from the outside. Activist protests The Tesla boss does not have to fear internally against Tesla’s expansion plans, but a strong IG Metall will slow down some decisions for Speedking Elon.
Continental boss Nikolai Setzer (52) has recently been managing in multi-crisis mode. He can’t get the car division out of the red, but is trying to do so by cutting more than 7,000 jobs. The MK C2 braking system was actually one of his hopes for a better future. But right at the start, Conti braked – and dangerously so. So far only BMW uses the electric “brake-by-wire” system in some models. And the people of Munich had to pull the emergency brake. Recall in the USA and Germany, other markets could follow. Hundreds of thousands of cars could be affected, the damage could be up to 400 million euros, not including scratches to the image. BMW purchasing manager Joachim Post (52) reacted harshly, as my colleagues Henning Hinze, Claas Tatje and Michael Freitag learned: The Munich-based company is no longer awarding orders to Conti for the time being
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Heads: Ola Källenius ++ Bernd Pischetsrieder ++ Peter Holdmann ++ Andreas Brand ++ Shawn Fain
The following applies to Volkswagen supervisory board members: the age of 75 is over. Unless your name is Porsche or Piëch. Hans Michel Piëch is 82. He will still run for another five-year term at the general meeting in May
, as my colleague Michael Freitag reports. In 2029, Piëch would be 87. What Wolfgang Porsche (80) can do – whose mandate was extended last year until 2028 – his cousin has been able to do for a long time.
Deep Drive: E-cars and their residual value problem
A market for used electric cars has yet to develop. This has unpleasant consequences for electric cars that are already on the road and their owners: electric cars lose value significantly more than combustion engines. Beryls consultant Christopher Ley predicts in one analysis
: If this continues, the 524,000 new electric cars registered in Germany last year will lose a cumulative value of almost three billion euros more in the next few years than gasoline cars sold in the same period.
Lucid Motors wants to conquer the car world with electric luxury cars, but stumbles time and time again. In 2023, CEO Peter Rawlinson (66) burned $2.8 billion. The hopes of the Saudi-pampered manufacturer rest on an SUV, whose production is scheduled to start at the end of the year. Unfortunately, there is already trouble. The name “Gravity” brings the start-up Gravity Inc. onto the scene. Both sides are now arguing in front of the US Patent Office
, who has to change the name. Rawlinson likes to praise his cars, saying they are the best ever. If he wants to seriously compete with Mercedes and Co., his next punch must not be missed.
Enough Rocky, have a good week!
Yours, Christoph Seyerlein
Do you have any wishes, suggestions or information that we should take care of journalistically? You can reach my colleagues in the Mobility team and me at manage.mobility@manager-magazin.de
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