Dear reader,
Every year at manager magazin we ring in autumn with an exclusive analysis of how the fortunes of the 500 richest Germans have developed in the last twelve months. This year, colleagues Christoph Neßhöver and Andreas Bornefeld found: There are 249 billionaires in this country, more than ever
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In today’s newsletter we want to look a little behind our richest list. It will be a lot about luxury, but also about (bearable) suffering: car clans have recently been among the losers of the local moneyed elite. Who should be surprised by all the crises in the industry? These are our topics of the week:
Who are Germany’s car billionaires?
How the new boss controls the luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce.
What Adrian Hallmark expects as boss at Aston Martin.
Topic of the week: Who are Germany’s car billionaires?
In Germany, wealth is still often linked to the car. Of the 249 billionaires in this country, 31 have a connection to the car scene – no other industry is so well represented among the high net worth. Overall, the car clans continue to make decent profits. Half were able to increase their wealth in the past twelve months, while a quarter remained largely unchanged. But the many car crises have recently had a noticeable impact, especially among the big players in the industry. If Volkswagen, BMW or Continental start to falter, it will quickly cost the Porsches, Klattens, Quandts or Schaefflers of this world billions. My colleague Anna Driftschröer went into more detail. She shows you who Germany’s car billionaires are and how their fortunes have developed recently
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Heads: Chris Brownridge ++ Mark Zuckerberg ++ Wolfgang Porsche ++ Sigrid de Vries ++ Hildegard Müller
In September, sales of new electric cars finally rose again after months. Is the lull over? Probably not yet. The increase was probably mainly due to a special effect: in 2023, e-registrations imploded in September after the funding for commercial buyers ended. The latest forecast from VDA President Hildegard Müller (57) is also poor. It is now estimated at one for 2024 Minus of 29 percent for electric vehicles out of. Previously, the VDA had “only” forecast minus 25 percent. But: things actually have to improve in 2025. Otherwise, as mentioned above, manufacturers face hefty CO₂ penalties.
Deep Drive: Car density increases
Anyone who talks about a transport or mobility transition is likely to think of fewer cars on the roads. A pious wish: According to that Federal Statistical Office
As of January 1, 2024, there were 580 cars for every 1,000 citizens in Germany. A year earlier there were 578. Since 2014, the density of cars in this country has increased in 15 of the 16 federal states. The only exception: Berlin.
Ghost driver of the week
Carlos Tavares (66) has been driving his competitors ahead of him in recent years. The Stellantis boss made luxury-like returns on mass-produced goods. Now the Tavares myth is getting scratched. He recently massively lowered his forecast for the current year, mainly due to poor business in North America. More and more anger is pouring out of our own ranks. Two open letters were recently directed against Tavares. First, US traders branded his strategy as “disaster
“. Now the European Stellantis partners also took a stand against the Portuguese: They criticized their manufacturer’s CO₂ plans. That’s not all: many Stellantis workers in Italy want to go on strike on October 18th. The infantry rebel against King Carlos.
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.