Dear reader,
Thursday is the car summit again. Or “automobile dialogue”, as the federal government calls the two-hour exchange with top representatives from industry, unions and associations.
Even before the talks, Hildegard Müller (58), President of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), had pushed for electric car drivers not to have to pay vehicle tax in the future. Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (47; SPD) is obedient: “We will continue to exempt electric cars from vehicle tax.” It seems clear that the CEOs and works councils are likely to put forward a number of other ideas for electric funding. Particularly clear ideas, You are reading it with us today
said Mercedes boss Ola Källenius (56).
Above all, the search for the right balance between the down and up of combustion engines and electric cars hovers. But you shouldn’t expect more than a German stance on this today: the rules of the game are not determined by Berlin – but by the EU in Brussels. Our topics of the week:
Ola Källenius (56) is certain: Not all European car buyers will be ready to switch to an electric model in 2035. It is also clear to the head of Mercedes-Benz and President of the European auto industry lobby association Acea: The phase-out of combustion engines in the EU, which is planned for 2035, has to go. Or, as Källenius put it very presidentially in an interview with manager magazin: We have to “make the end of combustion engines more flexible in 2035”. Källenius told my colleagues Margret Hucko and Michael Freitag that what exactly he means by that
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Heads: Michael Stoschek ++ Norbert Reithofer ++ Elon Musk ++ Jean-Philippe Imparato
Number of the week: 60
Things are going badly for many car manufacturers But the real whipping boys in the scene are the suppliers. The really big ones like Bosch or ZF are implementing tough austerity programs, and bankruptcies are increasing further down the supply chain. In a survey by the Association of the Automotive Industry, almost half of the 158 suppliers surveyed rated this their situation as “bad” or “very bad”. 60 percent want to cut jobs, and even 80 percent of companies plan to cancel, postpone or relocate investments abroad. Doom and gloom instead of golden October.
The police in Lower Saxony want to purchase a good 200 new electric patrol cars in the next few months. You might think how good it is to have a large manufacturer in your own state. But: VW doesn’t get a chance. The 26.4 million euros earmarked for this will go to Bavaria; the police order an Audi A6 e-tron instead of a VW ID.7. So at least the money stays in the company. The local IG Metall, however, finds the decision against VW “unfortunate” to say the least. The Ministry of the Interior emphasizes that “the most economical offer” has been selected. That probably means: Premium brand Audi was cheaper than volume brand VW. Not a case for the police, but perhaps for the internal corporate investigators.
I wish you a week without blue light,
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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