January 29th is a day with special meaning for the Daimler-Group: On this day 136 years ago, on January 29, 1886, the car pioneer Carl Benz, forefather of the group, submitted his patent for the first motor car. So it is no coincidence that the company changes its name on exactly this day: Daimler becomes Mercedes-Benz this Saturday – at least within the company. The official renaming and entry in the commercial register will take place on Tuesday of the coming week, i.e. on February 1st.
The name change is related to the split of the car company. Daimler had Daimler trucks spun off in December, made it an independent company and took it public. The remaining Daimler AG will now be renamed Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said CEO Ola Källenius (52) in an online conversation with journalists on Friday. The CEO thus confirmed earlier announcements by his company.
This is the fourth name for the company in a quarter of a century. Initially the group was called Daimler-Benz AG, was then renamed first Daimler-Chrysler and later Daimler. And now Mercedes-Benz.
From now on, the manufacturer will concentrate on passenger cars and vans, according to Källenius. According to Källenius, self-driving cars offer good prospects for Mercedes’ business. “Autonomous driving has incredible potential for the future,” said the CEO in the interview with journalists. He pointed out that the Stuttgart-based manufacturer would enable highly automated driving in series-production luxury sedans of the S-Class and was thus an industry pioneer. The fact that customers want to have more of it in the future is “crystal clear” for the car manufacturer.
Autonomous driving is a big industry topic. The VW Group and the large suppliers Bosch recently announced that they would take the next steps together on the road to self-driving cars. At Mercedes, in the future, drivers of certain S-Class cars will be able to hand over responsibility to the vehicle in traffic jams on certain sections of the motorway, for example, it said at the end of last year. For the first time in the more than 130-year history of the automobile, the vehicle will, under certain conditions, “take over the task of dynamic driving”, according to the manufacturer’s assessment.
After the spin-off of the truck business, Källenius sees good prospects for the remaining business with cars and vans. “We have significant growth potential in the Mercedes brand.” The top manager did not go into detail about the supply bottleneck with semiconductors, which affects the entire industry, because of the annual press conference on February 24th. Daimler board member Markus Schäfer (56) said at the beginning of the month that the shortage would continue in the first half of the year, and that the situation could ease up a bit in the second half of the year.