Dear reader,
There’s no getting around politics this week either. But not just this week. The impression that politics is increasingly intervening in the mobility industry (and that many companies don’t really know how to deal with this) is becoming more and more solid.
Since Wednesday there has been clarity on an issue that has been affecting the industry for a long time: the EU Commission is imposing restrictions from July Punitive tariffs of up to 38.1 percent on imported electric cars from China. Another decision will also be implemented at the beginning of July. With the “UNECE R 155” directive, the EU is tightening the cybersecurity requirements for new cars. For models like the VW Up, this is the nail in the coffin; elsewhere – you will read about it in this newsletter – scheduled cars disappear from the ordering systems practically overnight.
A change in drive policy would certainly have the greatest impact on the industry. Will combustion engines be phased out in 2035? The current resolution will be reviewed in 2026; the results of the European elections at least make a turnaround more likely.
When Volvo presented its electric hopeful EX30 in June 2023, Björn Annwall (49) left no doubt. The target set for 2021 will be maintained and from 2030 only electric cars will be sold; namely “without ifs and buts”. A year later, some ifs and buts have crept in at Annwall. They want to continue selling only electric cars from the next decade onwards, “but there will still be a lot of ups and downs until then”. Annwall also emphasizes that she also wants to keep plug-in and mild hybrids fresh. Will the next manufacturer tip over, similar to Mercedes recently? Its boss Ola Källenius (55) made similar comments to Annwall before he renounced “electric only”. Why Volvo has become more cautious, especially in China, and how punitive tariffs threaten the success of the EX30 E-SUV, read here
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“UNECE R 155” (one last time for today, I promise) is just the EU’s latest car regulatory coup. For Christian Malorny (59), former head of the car consultancy Kearney and McKinsey, the political interventions are now clearly going too far. He calculated that mid-range cars have become an average of 2,000 euros more expensive over the last 15 years due to political guidelines alone. “If things continue like this, new cars will become too expensive for many people,” criticizes Malorny. In a guest article, the expert describes, how politics disempowers car buyers from his point of view
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Number of the week: 300 million
The flying taxi start-up Lilium is fighting for survival. The last hope seems to be the state: 300 million euros would be needed to plug financing holes. 200 million euros could come from France, Lilium would like the rest from the federal government and the Free State of Bavaria.
Ghost driver of the week
The US state of Minnesota recently launched a funding program for e-bikes. For Pedelecs that cost no more than $1,500, citizens should be able to get up to 75 percent of the purchase price back. Unfortunately, the website crashed while it was still there not even 80 applications
were processed. The program has therefore been temporarily suspended. E-mobility and its promotion – it remains complicated.
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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You can also find our newsletter “manage:mobility”. here on our website.