Dear reader,
The shooting of Donald Trump (78) was the topic of conversation this week. Also with Elon Musk (53). The Tesla boss is now supporting Trump’s campaign with 45 million dollars – per month.
From a purely economic point of view, this seems surprising, since Trump is considered an opponent of electric cars. But: Musk no longer wants Tesla to be seen as an electric car manufacturer. Rather, according to the latest saying, the company is an AI pioneer.
Audi, VW, Cariad – as head of the Volkswagen Group, Oliver Blume (56) has a lot to worry about. Porsche should actually be a welcome distraction. Blume took on the hellish job in Wolfsburg almost two years ago only on the condition that he would continue to be in charge as CEO in Zuffenhausen. The dual role has always been polarizing. And now Porsche is also becoming a problem. Models there are now arriving too late, sales in China are weakening, returns that have long been great are suffering, and the luxury strategy is stuck. And peace breaks out internally: some colleagues on the board would probably be happy to represent Blume as boss from more than just Tuesday to Thursday. My colleague Michael Freitag asked around inside the company and describes: the Porsche problem
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Is the charging infrastructure the final enemy of electromobility? You can use the example of electric trucks to discuss this: The EU is demanding at least 2,000 charging stations for heavy-duty transport. According to a Fraunhofer ISI calculation but 1000 would be enoughto supply almost all of the expected long-distance electric truck traffic in Europe in 2030. Also one Roland Berger analysis
warns against too much focus on infrastructure. This actually slows down the electric ramp-up. Whether chicken-egg or egg-hen – things remain difficult with battery-powered cars.
Number of the week: 66.7
At Brose or ZF, see above, the situation is dicey – things are already burning further back in the car supply chain, at smaller companies. According to the advice Falkensteg
The number of auto supplier bankruptcies in Germany rose by 66.7 percent in the first half of the year. 20 companies filed for bankruptcy, including larger ones such as Eissmann, the Auto-Kabel Group and Franken Guss. More than 10,000 employees are affected. Weak sales figures, high investments and energy costs – a toxic mixture.
Bicycle start-up Vanmoof also filed for bankruptcy last year. Around 5,000 customers were hit particularly hard: they were left with deposits of up to 2,500 euros without receiving a bike. After scooter manufacturer Lavoie picked up Vanmoof, the new bosses want to appease horned buyers. With idiosyncratic methods. When purchasing the Vanmoof models A5 or S5, the deposit paid will not be charged. Instead, those affected wave 1000 euros discount
. The A5 and S5 each cost just under 3300 euros. All in all, those customers would have to pay up to 4,800 euros for a Vanmoof bike if they do not get their deposit back through legal action. “Loyalty is royalty” – but at Vanmoof the customer doesn’t seem to be king.
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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