Dear reader,
Everything is electric – or do we need e-fuels to keep car traffic clean? Supporters of both camps are in a constant clinch. Can also be observed yesterday evening at “manage:mobility live”. E-fuel advocate Monika Griefahn and combustion ban advocate Axel Friedrich argued about the path to “defossilization”.
Griefahn argued that the vehicle population, i.e. cars that are already on the road, needed “a way to reduce CO2 emissions. You have that with e-fuels.” Friedrich considers this to be “misleading the public”. Synthetic fuels are not available in sufficient quantities, so consumers are being led to believe they have a solution that isn’t a solution at all.
Griefahn countered that there is not direct access to electricity everywhere in the world. E-fuels could help here, but would only be produced in sufficient quantities if cars, trucks or construction machinery were also used for them. According to Friedrich, such proposals “hinder” the ramp-up of electromobility. Most existing vehicles will no longer be in operation in 2035. “There is no other solution for the future than to run cars electrically. “You have to tell people that too,” he demanded.
If you missed the discussion: We will put the recording online for managers magazine subscribers in the coming days.
Our topics of the week:
Why Karin Rådström should become the new boss at Daimler Truck.
Like VW with the ID. Buzz falls into the nostalgia trap.
Why there is a big bang at BYD in Germany.
Top topic: Why Karin Rådström should become the new boss at Daimler Truck
The question of who will inherit CEO Martin Daum (64) has been brewing at Daimler Truck for months. There were plenty of candidates, including three from our own board of directors: Karin Rådström (45), head of the core brand Mercedes-Benz Trucks and favorite of supervisory board chairman Joe Kaeser (67). Chief Technology Officer Andreas Gorbach (49), who has many friends in management. And Karl Deppen (58), he heads the Asia division; The employees especially appreciate it. My colleague Michael Freitag has learned: The search for the driver’s cab is almost over, Karin Rådström should be confirmed as the new CEO quickly. The Swede will work for the largest truck manufacturer in the world First you have to clean up and save
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Mercedes boss Ola Källenius (55) recently distracted himself from poor results with basketball. At the Olympic Games he attended the dramatic men’s semi-final between the USA and Serbia (final score: 95:91). The manager met the game’s biggest star a few days later in his “living room”. LeBron James (39) stopped by in Sindelfingen in style in flip flops and sports socks. Källenius filmed with him in an electric G-Class donuts
. Mercedes could use customers like James. With a base price of 142,621.50 euros, the electric off-road vehicle is not a bargain. For James, such sums are peanuts: his fortune is estimated at $1.2 billion, and he will earn $47.61 million with the Los Angeles Lakers next season.
Deep Drive: water stop
Fuel cell vehicles should combine the advantages of combustion engines and battery cars: decent range, quick refueling and still green. It looks like this remains a pipe dream. There are hydrogen cars like the Toyota Mirai and the Hyundai Nexo. But almost no one wants it. Loud SNE Research
In the first half of 2024, less than 6,000 fuel cell cars were sold worldwide, another 24 percent less than in the already poor period last year. Water stop instead of hydrogen.
Ghost driver of the week
The satirical report “Postillon” once joked that Deutsche Bahn was applying for a gambling license because of its new timetable. Reality has now overtaken the joke. Punctuality is reaching historic lows. The railway planners – according to the latest report – can no longer calculate the travel time due to the many construction sites, but can only estimate it. Nevertheless, the railway leadership around CEO Richard Lutz (54) is sticking to its Teflon rhetoric: everything will be fine! It won’t, writes my colleague Michael Machatschke and analyzes it four life lies of the railway failures
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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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