Dear reader,
The mobility scene is once again fragile these days. The auto industry is threatened with the next major disruption due to the chip drama surrounding Nexperia.
The bicycle industry is anything but in flow. There is now a lot of noise surrounding Eurobike. Prominent names no longer want to have anything to do with the event, including Bosch and the ZIV and Zukunft Fahrrad associations. You don’t see any chance of necessary changes, is it [called
. After the last trade fair in June, quite a few exhibitors are said to have grumbled about the organization. The Eurobike as Europe’s leading bicycle trade fair – the trade fair seems to have been read for now. Our topics of the week:
Anyone whose fortune depends on the fortunes of the Volkswagen Group can be nervous at the moment. Porsche’s head of the family, Wolfgang Porsche (82), is seeking advice from his controversial hunting buddy Siegfried Wolf (67) during the crisis. Representatives of major shareholders on various supervisory boards of the group are increasingly raising critical questions. But the Salzburg auto dynasty also has to ask itself questions. For example, what should happen next with their holding company, Porsche SE. The fact that Lutz Meschke (59) continues to be involved as a board member doesn’t suit everyone. The long-time head of finance at the car manufacturer Porsche left in the spring due to strife. My colleague Michael Freitag is dissecting a thick one Bundle of Salzburg worries
. And also has exclusive personnel to offer on the Audi supervisory board.
Volkswagen? Manufactured a billion-dollar loss in the third quarter. Mercedes? Lost operating profit by 70 percent. BMW? Earned 1.7 billion euros, almost three times as much as in the (pretty weak) same period last year. Have the people of Munich found the holy car grail or are the other German manufacturers just being too stupid? It seems certain: BMW is navigating better through the many crises. However, the Bavarian Motor Works does not exude only glamor and glory. According to CFO Walter Mertl (51), BMW recently benefited from the fact that the peak in development spending has been passed.
Deepdrive: How long are plug-in hybrid batteries?
Plug-in hybrids (PHEV) are experiencing something of a renaissance. Many drivers still don’t really trust purely battery-powered cars. Many regulars’ tables have already discussed the sense and nonsense of the combination of combustion engine and battery as a temporary solution. With the claim to sobriety, the ADAC has now looked at how long the batteries of plug-in hybrids last. Overall, the club has a positive result Result
: The batteries usually last the life of the car. PHEV models from Mercedes performed best in the test, while the ADAC found the most significant “degradation” in batteries in Mitsubishi vehicles.
Is Germany losing its engine of the domestic economy? The auto industry has undoubtedly seen better days. Moritz Schularick (50), President of the renowned Kiel Institute for the World Economy, even sees the local car manufacturers in the ultimate ghost driver mode. Schularick does not believe that Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW will still exist in their current form in five years. Instead, he could easily imagine “a kind of Volvo solution” for corporations, the economist said on Sunday on Caren Miosga’s talk show. The Chinese giant Geely has been at the helm of the Swedes as a strategic investor since 2010. VDA President Hildegard Müller (58) was also on the show. Your comment on Schularick? “Absurd.”
Hopefully you have already found the right strategy for an enjoyable 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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