Ola Källenius
In addition to digitization, Källenius is fully committed to electric mobility.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich Daimler is changing. The Stuttgart-based carmaker is saving drastically, realigning its core business and cutting thousands of jobs in its combustion plants. Despite all the modifications, customers could still rely on the fact that all Mercedes vehicles would continue to display a combination of “aesthetics and high-tech”, assured Daimler boss Ola Källenius at the Handelsblatt Auto Summit on Friday. “We have both: emotion and intelligence,” said the manager.
In order to maintain this claim in competition, Källenius wants to program many digital applications himself in the future. “It is a very clear shift in strategy that more and more is going in-house,” said Källenius in his opening statement.
The reason: The car is evolving into a smartphone on wheels and is ultimately one of the most important products in the context of the Internet of Things. “We’re talking about the third room,” explained Källenius. In addition to one’s own apartment and office, the car is the place where digital progress can be well mapped.
“What our customers expect is that the car is just as networked and embedded as we experience it at home or at work,” said Källenius: “We want to do more and more in-house in this direction.”
Specifically, Daimler has been hiring hundreds of software developers in this area for several years. The goal: by the end of 2024, the Stuttgart-based car maker wants to program its own operating system called MB.OS for the Mercedes fleet.
“This system is the car’s brain and central nervous system,” explains Källenius. The company’s own software platform is to be the central instance for engine, air conditioning and infotainment in the future.
With MB.OS, Daimler not only wants to compete technologically with Tesla, but also prevent data octopuses like Google from penetrating further inside the vehicle software. “That is why it is so important that we are the architect of this operational system – that the interface to the customer also belongs to us,” emphasized Källenius.
Electric mobility is also in focus
Based on his own software platform, the Scandinavian hopes to be able to generate more recurring sales and profits in the future. Instead of selling customers a new car every few years, Daimler also wants to earn money in the coming years with software updates with which Mercedes drivers can subsequently purchase improved driver assistance systems or service subscriptions. Such services are expected to contribute up to one billion euros to annual operating profit by the middle of the decade.
In addition to digitization, Källenius is fully committed to electric mobility. “We are going on a massive electrification offensive with many new models,” said the Swede. By the end of the decade, the proportion of new cars that are fully or partially electrically powered is expected to rise to more than 50 percent of total sales.
The majority of these cars will be all-electric models. “On the way to 2030, we believe that battery electric vehicles will take over from the momentum,” believes Källenius. At the same time, the plug-in hybrids, which in addition to the electric drive also have an internal combustion engine, would also play an important role.
The plug-in hybrids are a low-emission alternative, especially where the charging infrastructure will still have gaps in the coming years, explained Källenius.
More: VW boss Diess promises quick expansion of electric mobility.