Dear reader,
You read it in our last issue, I was traveling around the auto show in Beijing last week. I could fill the newsletter with my impressions, and what particularly struck me was an enthusiasm for cars that we can no longer imagine. The hustle and bustle in the Beijing exhibition halls, the countless influencers and content creators, the celebrity cult surrounding the Chinese car bosses – crazy.
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Bustle and bustle in Beijing: manager magazine editor Christoph Seyerlein and many others made their way through the world’s largest car show
Photo: manager magazine
In Germany there are around 580 vehicles per 1000 people, in the USA there are as many as 800. In China? 180. The potential there is still huge; German car manufacturers have liked this numbers game for many years. But if you want to stay ahead in China, you need different strategies than in saturated markets. I experienced this once again impressively in Beijing
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Where all the additional cars are supposed to go remains a mystery: last Thursday it took us almost two hours to drive the 20 kilometers from the exhibition center to the hotel. The normal traffic jam, I was assured.
Air taxis could help, including in China. However, the air is getting thin for the German start-ups that want to be at the forefront with their short-haul flights. This is what one of our topics of the week shows:
How Volocopter and Lilium fight for survival
How the supplier Kiekert wants to turn things around with more production in Germany
Why Mercedes and Volkswagen started 2024 weakly
Top topic: How Volocopter and Lilium fight for survival
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Actually ready to go: The multicopter Volocity would be ready to fly, but the approval is missing
Photo: Volocopter
Two German start-ups want to realize the dream of electric flight. After years of great promises, Volocopter and Lilium had recently become more serious. The founders were replaced by aviation veterans, Klaus Roewe (59, Lilium) and Dirk Hoke (55, Volocopter) brought with them years of Airbus experience. The technology seems to be working, and the companies have recently been hoping for government funding. But the plan is in danger of not getting approval due to political wrangling. Volocopter boss Hoke is therefore warning of bankruptcy. My colleague Michael Machatschke has checked into the “air taxi” world and describes: how the German aviation pioneers fight for survival
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Heads: Jérôme Debreu ++ Rebecca Tinucci ++ Renata Jungo Brüngger ++ Olaf Schick
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Heiligenhaus hero: Kiekert boss Jérôme Debreu spreads new hope
Photo:
Jann Höfer / manager magazine
A few years ago it was also about survival for Kiekert. A 166-year-old automotive supplier from Heiligenhaus in the Bergisches Land, known for locking systems. In 2020 there was a threat of extinction. Then Jérôme Debreu (49), a manager who went through the school of the late Knorr-Bremse patriarch Heinz Hermann Thiele, took over. While other industrial companies are withdrawing plants from Germany, the French are bringing production back home. Has the man gone crazy?
The Supercharger charging network is considered a decisive factor in Tesla’s rise. What happens next seems unclear. The manager responsible for the superchargers, Rebecca Tinucci was apparently fired, her team probably has to go too. Daniel Ho and his employees, who are responsible for new products, will also lose their jobs. You have to be “absolutely tough when it comes to the number of employees and the costs,” writes Elon Musk (52) in an email.
Mercedes legal director Renata Jungo Brüngger (62) has one less concern. US authorities investigated the Swabian car manufacturer for eight years because of possible violations of emissions regulations. Now it is clear: Mercedes no longer has anything to fear from criminal prosecution.
Continental, on the other hand, has to pay a fine. Not in the USA, in Hanover. The public prosecutor there condemned the supplier for a “negligent violation of the duty of supervision” to a fine of 100 million euros. Legal director Olaf Schick (51) wants to accept the punishment.
Company: Mercedes ++ Volkswagen ++ BYD ++ Stellantis ++ Tesla ++ Vitesco
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“Not satisfied”: Mercedes CFO Harald Wilhelm hopes for a better rest of 2024
Photo: Daniel Roland / AFP
Sales, sales, profits – everything is declining. Mercedes and Volkswagen started 2024 weakly
, similar Porsche. The finance heads Harald Wilhelm (58, Mercedes) and Arno Antlitz (54, Volkswagen) reassure that things will get better as the year progresses. Electric cars in particular are selling poorly. Volkswagen is already getting help from the past: “Bass, bass, we need bass!” Are you down?” makes one-hit wonder “Das Bo”: “Buzz, buzz, you need a buzz. The price is down!”
Will this help to sell more electric ID.Buzzes?
The German car manufacturers are not alone with their lousy first quarters. Also with the Chinese attacker BYD profit declined. Margin king Stellantis did not report any profits during the year, but the Opel parent company’s sales also collapsed in the first quarter. Stellantis shares fell 10 percent on Tuesday. Aston Martin’s new boss Adrian Hallmark (61) is also starting with a mortgage. The British also weakened in the first quarter.
The stock market has recently gone further and further downward for Tesla. The stock lost around 40 percent over the course of the year before Elon Musk’s trip to China at the beginning of the week provided a brief relief. One Cooperation with Baidu Tesla is supposed to help with autonomous driving, the shares rose by around 10 percent on Monday. But on Tuesday the glory was over again. As mentioned, further layoffs became public: Tesla shares fell by almost 6 percent.
Schaeffler can take over Vitesco as planned. In the meantime they have Shareholders of the two suppliers agreed. Everything should be done by the end of the year, the name Vitesco will disappear, and Schaeffler will then be one of the ten largest automotive suppliers in the world with sales of around 25 billion euros. Financially the biggest winner: Vitesco supervisory board chairman and Porsche friend Siegfried Wolf (66). If you like what was recommended here last week Portrait of the auto oligarch
Haven’t read it yet: it’s worth it.
More mobility: Nextbike ++ e-scooter ++ charging stations ++ gas stations
Kicked free: bike rental company Nextbike now belongs to a British investor
Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/picture alliance/dpa
The deal has already been announced at the Federal Cartel Office, and now it has been completed: bike rental company Nextbike has a new owner
. The British private equity company Star Capital is buying all shares in the Leipzig company from Tier Mobility. Tier had taken over Nextbike around two years ago, but subsequently rolled and cycled into the crisis. Now Nextbike is moving on independently again. The annual turnover was recently almost 60 million euros.
A new dispute has broken out over e-scooters. In the truest sense of the word: the question is whether the scooters could easily catch fire. The TÜV association
certifies that approved e-scooters have a “high level of safety and fire protection”. Previously he had Association of Transport Companies
(VdV) warned of the fire risk after an investigation by the Study Association for Tunnels and Transport Systems (Stuvatec) and even advised public transport providers to ban the transport of e-scooters. Some have already followed the recommendation. To the annoyance of the scooter scene: they find the Stuvatec study flawed.
The expansion of charging stations for electric cars has long been the subject of ongoing discussion. The European automotive industry lobby association Acea now wants to make the next point: 150,000 new charging stations are currently being installed in Europe every year. So that there will be enough in 2030, But it would have to be 440,000 per year.
Even if progress with e-stations is slower than hoped: traditional gas stations are apparently becoming increasingly unattractive for operators. ExxonMobil sold its German gas station network a few years ago, and now Phillips 66 wants its too Get rid of jet locations in Germany and Austria
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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.
Number of the week: 35 million
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Poser: Henrik Fisker no longer just wants to sell cars – but also his Hollywood villa
Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP
Fisker recently produced almost more negative headlines than cars. The consumer magazine “Consumer Reports
“The Ocean SUV was described as an “Unfinished Business”. Now founder Henrik Fisker (60) wants to sell his Hollywood villa with a view of the Sunset Strip. Cost: 35 million dollars
. Fisker’s apparently no longer so familiar home would therefore be worth more than his car company – which was recently valued at around $25 million.
Deep Drive: Should I really do it or should I just leave it alone?
Instead of “Das Bo”, we are transitioning to electromobility with “Fettes Brot”. It’s sagging in Germany, like them German Academy of Technical Sciences
Has been established. Only 17 percent of people in this country would currently consider buying an electric car. Range ugh, charging network ugh. And are these things really that environmentally friendly? There are plenty of studies on this, sometimes more, sometimes less reliable. She shouldn’t lie ADAC breakdown statistics
. It doesn’t deal with environmental aspects. It’s still interesting: compared to combustion engines of the same age, electric cars bleed less often. Maybe the electric car skeptics will do it after all.
Ghost driver of the week
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Practically always on time: Japan’s “Shinkansen” express trains
Photo: Richard A. Brooks / AFP
The damn 17 again: Japan’s Shinkansen express trains are a model of consistency; they are practically never late. In mid-April one of the Japanese “bullet trains” was hit. The train had a ghost driver on board. There was a queue snaking through the carriages 17 minutes late
. Maybe something that Deutsche Bahn could include in its catalog of reasons for delays. Technical defects or “people on the track” (then there is no refund) become boring in the long run.
Get through the week well and on time!
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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