The auto show in Beijing opens its doors today. My colleague Christoph Seyerlein has been in Beijing for the last few days looked around
and asked around. His impression: German cars are definitely present on the street – but they almost never have a green license plate. In most cases, they are neither electric cars nor plug-in hybrids.
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Germans only with combustion engines: There is no shortage of German cars on Beijing’s streets. But hardly any of them have a green electric car license plate
Photo: manager magazine
The “NEVs” (New Energy Vehicles) will probably overtake the combustion engines in the Chinese sales charts this year. The fierce battle for market share is also dominated by the subjective view of the road: BYD. The German combustion engine kings are now hoping that the big weeding out of the countless Chinese attackers will now begin – and that their combustion engine profits will help them navigate this phase long enough.
In comparison, the transformation to e-mobility is progressing painfully slowly in the rest of the world. But there is the prospect of more battery cells and a mysterious cheap Tesla. Here are our topics of the week:
When Northvolt wants to build batteries in Germany
Why BMW, Audi and Porsche don’t have a problem with young talent
How Elon Musk covers up Tesla’s weakness
Why auto oligarch Sigi Wolf seems to be out of luck
Top topic: Northvolt’s stock market opportunity
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Stock market window in view: Northvolt boss Peter Carlsson
Photo: Yevgeni Roppel / manager magazin
The Swede Peter Carlsson (53) is the great hope of the European car industry. With his company Northvolt, he plans to invest around 20 billion euros in setting up European cell production. My colleague Michael Freitag spoke to him in a very open interview about, among other things, when he wants to start supplying Audi and Porsche (namely 2025) and why it is taking so long to open his factories in Skellefteå in northern Sweden and in Heide in Schleswig-Holstein to get running – and Carlsson also explains, why Northvolt could go public in 2024.
Heads: Ilka Horstmeier ++ Federico Magno ++ Florian Huettl
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Tough serial winner: BMW’s human resources director Ilka Horstmeier has not been known for a gentle personnel policy since she took office in 2019. Nevertheless, academics have preferred to work for BMW for years
Photo: IMAGO/Saquan Stimpson / IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
“There is no subscription for success,” says BMW’s human resources director Ilka Horstmeier (54). However, the car manufacturer’s popularity as an employer raises doubts about this: according to the Berlin market research institute Trendence – like every year since 2012 – the most popular address for young economists and engineers
, which is perhaps not entirely Horstmeier’s achievement, but gives her a lot of choice when it comes to applications. By the way, Audi and Porsche are in second and third place.
Speaking of which: Porsche is moving top personnel between its two consulting subsidiaries. The 5,000-strong IT consultancy MHP will be led from May by Federico Magno (52), previously in the management of the process and strategy consultancy Porsche Consulting. At the beginning of the year, Porsche also took over the last MHP shares from founder Ralf Hofmann (60) and wants to significantly expand the company in the coming years. Some rumors: merge with Porsche Consulting.
Opel boss Florian Huettl (47) is in favor of new electric car funding. It makes sense for governments to provide purchasing incentives during a ramp-up phase. Opel wants to sell 100 percent electric cars from 2028 – and stick to it regardless of politics. “We are clearly sticking to our plan, also when it comes to speed.”
Company: Volkswagen ++ Vinfast ++ Autodoc ++ General Motors ++ Volvo
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Seething in Beijing: VW China boss Ralf Brandstätter is trying to portray dry times as not a problem
Photo:
Jan Philip Welchring for manager magazine
Volkswagen’s China boss Ralf Brandstätter (55) is currently on a major mission in Beijing (see above). He tries to explain his rescue mission to journalists and investors around the auto show. VW was facing two tough years in the most important market, he admitted to my colleague Christoph Seyerlein. His product manager chose even more drastic words, but read for yourself: Volkswagen’s nervousness on the “battlefield” of China
.
At home in Wolfsburg, however, there is a need to save money – which is costing the company a lot: even employees below management who leave voluntarily can receive up to 455,000 euros and thus indirectly help VW brand boss Thomas Schäfer (54) to save 20 percent in personnel costs. We had already reported last week about a “turbo bonus” of up to 50,000 euros for those who made quick decisions, but the employees now also know that that the range goes from 17,700 euros to almost half a million
.
Vinfast has a boss who is both rich and ambitious. Pham Nhat Vuong plans to shake up the e-car world from Vietnam, had cars styled by Pininfarina and announced a US factory for $4 billion. But there is still no sign of the factory, writes the US portal Hunterbook after two years of observing construction sites
. Of the 3,118 cars imported into the USA in 2023, only 265 were delivered. And of the 35,000 cars sold worldwide, 70 percent went to companies owned by Vinfast boss Pham Nhat Vuong, which accounted for 90 (!) percent of group sales.
The online parts retailer Autodoc is raising money in other ways three years after a failed IPO. The US financial investor Apollo acquire a minority stake together with other investors, Autodoc reported on Wednesday. The company, founded in 2008, is valued at 2.3 billion euros.
General Motors is benefiting from the currently faltering sales of electric cars: sales of lucrative combustion engine models brought an unexpected increase in sales of 7.6 percent compared to the previous year to $43 billion in the first year.
Because of inflation. Volvo Cars claims to have benefited from lower material costs in the first quarter. Together with an increase in sales, the Swedish Geely subsidiary achieved an eight percent increase in operating profit from its core business. The equivalent of 590 million euros remained stuck.
More mobility: GDL ++ Deutsche Bahn ++ OHB ++ Shimano
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Conversations in the background: When reaching an agreement on the rail strike, federal politicians explored a compromise with union boss Claus Weselsky
Photo: FILIP SINGER / EPA
Since the decline of the port and shipyards, Bremen has been looking for a world-class industry, and above all it has an ace up its sleeve: space travel. This summer, the local OHB wants to test fire small rockets on the North Sea, says company boss Marco Fuchs (61). US investor KKR is now hoping for the last three outstanding government approvals for its entry, at the end of which OHB will be delisted from the stock exchange.
The world’s largest bicycle parts manufacturer Shimano expects sales to continue to fall. The forecast for Europe is worrying, analyzes my colleague Lutz Reiche.
Give us your opinion!
If you have any questions or suggestions about this newsletter, please feel free to write to us manage.mobility@manager-magazin.de
. Of course, if you have any tips or suggestions for research. We are looking forward to your message.
Deep Drive: The Seven Lives of Siegfried Wolf
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Russia understander: Siegfried Wolf (right) in conversation with the oligarch Oleg Deripaska
Photo: ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
Anyone who approaches Siegfried Wolf (66) enters a strange in-between world: The Austrian was involved with VW and Opel, was friends with works councils as well as with oligarchs, is the best man of Wolfgang Porsche (80), a medalist of Vladimir Putin (71) and an ex-boyfriend by Katarina Witt (58). For years he has used this connectivity to pull strings in the German, Russian and Austrian automotive and supplier industries. And the passionate hunter has become an influential advisor to two of Germany’s most powerful car clans: the Schaefflers and the Porsches. My colleague Claas Tatje studied it intensively and explained: how someone like Wolf can still be so courted in times of compliance and sanctions
. But what he also writes: Wolf could have just used up his seven lives. There are two criminal cases against him in Austria, and at least one of them could land him in prison. Of course, Wolf himself considers himself innocent.
Number of the week: Tesla’s 2.5 billion hole
If cash is king, then Tesla has a problem. Free cash flow was minus $2.5 billion in the first quarter, which was in every respect an even worse catastrophe than feared: minus 9 percent in sales compared to the same quarter of the previous year; minus 56 percent in operating profit; an operating margin of 5.5 percent, below that of German car manufacturers. Tesla boss Elon Musk (52) countered the hard numbers with the usual illusion theater: He promised the long-awaited entry-level Tesla for the coming year – although it will probably be a hybrid of the current Model 3/Model Y and parts of the half-finished entry-level model. It helped the share price.
Ghost driver of the week
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Lots of mileage money: Ferrari crashed during a transfer trip in Stuttgart
Photo: Andreas Rometsch / KS-Images.de / dpa / picture alliance
An unnamed 24-year-old employee of the Mechatronik company who was supposed to transport a Ferrari F40 from the company premises to a sales room gained worldwide fame this week. It has to be said that the super sports car, which was produced 1,315 times, was the last car developed by company founder Enzo Ferrari, a brand icon and, in this specific case, available to buy for 2,995,000 euros. No automotive specialist media in the world missed the photos of the racer
after the unfortunate driver first hit the left and then the right wall of a tunnel. The good news: The man was uninjured and kept his job. And also: Ferrari can supply all spare parts. The bad news: Each one costs as much as a small car, at least.
You’ll get through your week better! And look forward to the next one: Then newsletter regular author Christoph Seyerlein – fresh back from Beijing – will provide you with his more in-depth analysis of the situation in China.
Yours, Henning Hinze
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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