Dear reader,
There was a general meeting at Volkswagen on Wednesday. But only virtually, so unlike last year, patron Wolfgang Porsche (81) didn’t have to worry about flying cakes. Shareholder representatives expressed their anger at the accumulation of offices, the poor performance on the stock market and other construction sites at the car manufacturer vented in advance.
Then there was a bit of decision making. Anyone who reads us regularly will not have been surprised: after the talks with Renault collapsed VW wants to offer an electric car on its own in 2027 for around 20,000 euros. For CEO Oliver Blume (55), “Project Amsterdam” is proof that Volkswagen is able to “develop quickly. Efficient and effective – with Europe Speed.” Whether that’s fast enough remains to be seen. In any case, Volkswagen and other car manufacturers could urgently use electric successes. Our topics of the week also show this:
It wasn’t long ago that the major car rental companies were outdoing each other in their enthusiasm for electric vehicles. Hertz wanted to buy up to 100,000 Tesla and up to 65,000 Polestar models, and Sixt wanted to buy up to 100,000 BYD cars. In the meantime, the euphoria has been dissipated. The landlords are changing course after heavy losses with the electric vehicles. The residual values of electric cars have collapsed and the repair costs are too high, they explain. But the problems with electric vehicles go deeper, says Jens Hilgerloh (61), owner of the car rental company Starcar. They also caused problems in everyday rental life and were overall “at least 50 percent more expensive than comparable combustion engines”. For Hilgerloh it is clear: electric cars and car rentals are not possible (yet). This is the next problem for the e-goals of automobile manufacturers.
Heads: Florian Kamelger ++ Andreas Bänziger ++ Ursula Biernert ++ Max-Josef Meier ++ Elon Musk
Wei Jianjun (60) prescribes military training to new employees at Great Wall Motor in China. However, the founder and boss of the car manufacturer is sending all of his approximately one hundred employees in Europe home at the end of August. After the botched expansion to date, “Jack Wey” is taking radical measures the European headquarters in Munich closes
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Deep Drive: Who provides power?
Private customers don’t want it right now, and landlords, as we’ve learned, don’t want it either. Who even wants electric cars anymore? Maybe a “Persona study
“ from Uscale a little light into the darkness. If they want to sell their electric vehicles, “salespeople and marketing experts have to adapt to a new variety of customers,” says Uscale boss Axel Sprenger. After the electric enthusiasts have had their breakfast, manufacturers should reorient their offerings towards: “Status-conscious conservatives”, “Progressive performers”, “Frugal pragmatists” and “Environmentally-oriented techies”.
In the fight for votes in the upcoming European elections, the CDU is railing against the end of combustion engines from 2035. The party hoped for approval from an online survey. That backfired: After more than 85 percent of participants spoke out against the CDU position, the party stopped the poll
. The statement from General Secretary Carsten Linnemann (46): The result was manipulated by CDU opponents “with criminal energy” and tens of thousands of automatic votes. “Any twelve-year-old who Greenpeace paid for it with lollipops would have been able to do that,” says one of Linnemann’s party friends. Oh bot, oh bot!
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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