The talks have been going on for months, and the Formula 1 dreams of Audi boss Markus Duesmann (52) seemed crazy at times, like a set of slicks on the final lap. But the frustration is gone, the Volkswagen Group Supervisory Board could already give the go-ahead this Thursday. Duesmann offers a lot of money for McLaren, the most successful Formula 1 team of all time after Ferrari. He wants a third of the racing team and the majority of the high-deficit luxury car manufacturer. Not all the chicanes have been circumnavigated yet. But at the end of the billion-dollar game, my colleagues Michael Freitag and Margret Hucko write after talking to many insiders that McLaren will most likely become the next brand in the VW empire. And this is – Audi’s McLaren plan for Formula 1
.
Heads: Anja van Niersen ++ Elon Musk ++ Britta Seeger ++ Nadja Thiele ++ Alexander and Konstantin Sixt
The Munich solar car start-up Sono Motors, which has been listed on the Nasdaq since November, wants to produce the first sun-powered cars in the second half of 2023. Factory capacities at Valmet Automotive in Finland were secured this week by bosses Laurin Hahn (27) and Jona Christians (28). But they still lack a lot of money before they can start. And her head of the supervisory board, the former VW and Daimler manager Wilko Stark (49), left the company in a hurry after just two months: Better an empty company shell in the Caymans than Sono Motors.
After a record year, Porsche boss Oliver Blume (53) pays the employees a hefty bonus: There is a bonus of up to 7900 euros – more than last year. And much more than at the parent company Volkswagen.
Sino-Swedish electric car maker Polestar, which is known to plan to launch a $20 billion Spac IPO before the summer, has landed one of the biggest electric car deals of all time. The US rental company Hertz wants to buy up to 65,000 Polestar (after ordering 100,000 Teslas last year). Maybe the Sono bosses should call Hertz boss Stephen Scherr.
Speaking of which: US automaker Rivian, currently still valued at $36 billion, has delivered more cars than ever before in a quarter: exactly 1227
. However, the production target of 25,000 this year, which has just been reduced by more than a third, is being adhered to.
Renault boss Luca De Meo (54) is pursuing plans to spin off the electric car business from the rest of the group. 2023 could be the New Mobility unit go public
, quote the Bloomberg colleagues from a panel of analysts.
New Mobility: Go Sharing ++ Gogoro ++ Micromobility
The Dutch e-scooter company Go Sharing, which has so far only operated in Saarbrücken in Germany, has lost almost all of its rental scooters in Brussels. Young people in particular had shared instructions on how to crack the vehicles on the Internet. On request, the company did not want to tell us whether the phenomenon had already been noticed elsewhere. We are now in the process of solving the problem explained a manager in Belgian media
– it just takes a few weeks.
Gogoro, made famous with removable batteries for e-scooters in Taiwan, has been listed on the Nasdaq since Monday. The Spac IPO raised $335 million.
A little link tip, because we just discovered it ourselves: The micromobility influencer (and VW manager) Augustin Friedel maintains a detailed map of Europe on which the Sharing provider of each city with various individual data
are listed.
Number of the week: 62.5
By so many percent is the Russian car market slumped in March compared to the previous year.
At VW, Toyota or Porsche the minus was even higher; significantly lower for Chinese manufacturers such as Geely.
Deep Drive: Study of the week
This week the third part of the IPCC report on climate change was published. It is about weighing up the various political measures in order to still meet the 1.5-degree target, and in great detail about the change in the traffic and transport sector. Central sentence in this context
on pdf page 162: “Of the 60 identified measures that could change individual consumption, individual mobility choices have the greatest potential for reducing the carbon footprint. By favoring car-free mobility on foot and by bicycle and the introduction of the Electromobility could save two tons of CO2 equivalent per capita and year.”
Nio boss William Li (47), who is expanding his electric car brand from China to Germany, has just protect various brands in the wine business
. One literally means “Son of Light”. They are to become part of the Nio Life division, with which Li is already cavorting among renowned winemakers. So, as Nio proudly announced, he has entered into a strategic partnership with the French President’s purveyor to the court. Car and alcohol don’t go well together – unless the Nios drive home autonomously one day. For the benefit!
I wish you an eventful week!
Sincerely yours, Lukas Heiny