How big is Tesla’s dominance in the auto industry really? Sure, the investors see the future in their euphoria in Elon Musk (50) and his company. It is not for nothing that Tesla is worth more than 780 billion euros on the stock exchange. But is that justified? And what does that mean for the German rivals? My colleague Michael Freitag discussed these questions with the two renowned top consultants Ralf Kalmbach and Steffen Gänzle from Bain & Company. Above all, they conjure up a duel between Tesla and Apple that is reminiscent of Godzilla versus King Kong and raises a question: will Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes only capitulate in the end? No, say the two professionals and analyze: “Tesla is beatable.”
Speeding through the area on an e-scooter at more than 100 kilometers per hour – that’s crazy. Maybe so crazy that you can make money with it. At least that’s what Hrag Sarkissian (35) and Khalil Beshir (39) thought. Starts this weekend their new racing series in London. And there are models, Formula 1 drivers and former boxing world champions. For example, racing driver Nico Hülkenberg (34) bought himself as a racing team owner. My colleague Christoph Seyerlein spoke to those involved. Your ambitions in the first season sound as crazy as the 100 km/h: 380 million viewers worldwide on the screens. No wonder Hulkenberg is hoping for a “business opportunity”. Fast money, so to speak.
One is still going. Despite the current turbulence on the stock market, despite the great Spac disillusionment and all the critical investors who have somehow lost confidence in air taxi companies – Eve has also been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since this Tuesday. The Embraer (aircraft) and BAE Systems (defence)-backed firm made it onto Wall Street with a Spac maneuver and a valuation in excess of $2 billion. The promises: shimmer golden. The course: still stable.
The Munich start-up Fernride promises a shortcut to robotic trucks. Full autonomy is overrated, money can be made much faster with the remote control: the trucks are steered like on the Playstation via gamepad and screen. Now several top managers from BMW and Argo AI are hiring at the company – the start-up is poaching among the big ones.
Deep Drive: Dive of the week
In his career as a board member at Volkswagen and Daimler and as CEO of Traton, Andreas Renschler (64) often dealt with trucks. Now he has wrote a book
. Not like drugstore patron Dirk Roßmann (75) an octopus thriller, but a work with the sober title: “The future of commercial vehicles in times of transformation”. My colleague Michael Freitag read it – and had to ask himself test questions at the end of each chapter. Did he pass? Stays secret.
Number of the week: 214.4 million
For so many (or rather: few) US dollars, the US carmaker Ford sold part of its Rivian shares. Immediately after the minimum holding period after the IPO last fall expired on Sunday, the group pushed 8 million papers
away. You had pushed Ford into the red by the significant price slump in the first quarter. The other investors found it so average. The Rivian price has dropped again by a third since last week. Incidentally, Daimler did the same thing in 2014 – and sold its Tesla shares for around 600 million euros. That would be worth a good 10 billion today.
After New York and Hong Kong, the Chinese electric car manufacturer Nio will also be listed on the Singapore stock exchange starting next week. Be with it the first electric car manufacturer in the world
, which is listed on three trading venues, the company announced. But, alas, three may soon become two again. Because like other Chinese companies, Nio is threatened with exclusion on Wall Street if the carmaker does not want to or cannot meet certain transparency obligations. After all: The stock market value is currently a good 20 billion US dollars – and does not have to be divided by three.
I wish you an eventful week!
Sincerely yours, Lukas Heiny