Daimler – Page 1591 – I wish I had more to offer

Musk now most tenured CEO in global auto industry

Under Musk, Tesla is breaking all records. The electric car-maker achieved a record production of 87,048 vehicles and record deliveries of approximately 95,200 vehicles in the second quarter of 2019. San Francisco: For many of us, Tesla is a new entrant in the global auto industry but Elon Musk has actually become the longest serving… Continue reading Musk now most tenured CEO in global auto industry

German automotive supplier ZF to deliver powertrain for Daimler’s new electric SUV

BERLIN, July 10 (Xinhua) — The powertrain components of Daimler's new electric SUV, the EQC, will come from German automotive supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG, announced Wolf-Henning Scheider, chief executive officer (CEO) of ZF, in an interview with the newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung on Wednesday.
Germany's third largest automotive supplier will provide the “complete driveline module” for Daimler's EQC family, from electric motors to single-gear transmissions with differentials, as well as the control software, Scheider explained.
The order placed by Daimler was “an important milestone,” Scheider said, but did not specify the volume of the powertrain order. It is up to Daimler to reveal any “details” of the deal, he said.
Last week, ZF already announced its “second largest single order” by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) for eight-speed automatic transmissions, which “feature an integrated electric drive for hybrid variants.”
ZF's cooperation with FCA “confirms our s..

Volkswagen Beetle Production Comes To A Grinding Halt

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Volkswagen Beetle Production Comes To A Grinding Halt

10 Jul 2019, 16:56 UTC ·
by Mircea Panait

Home > News > Car Profile

Starting at $20,895 in the United States, the Beetle is no longer available to order. The final example of the breed – a coupe finished in Denim Blue – will be exhibited at the Volkswagen museum in Puebla. Speaking of which, the first-ever Beetle manufactured in Mexico rolled off the assembly line in 1967.
12 photos
Known as the Type 1 back when Volkswagen was nothing more than the dream of a mad man, the Beetle was redesigned from the ground up in 1997 with the introduction of the New Beetle. In other words, it was a re-bodied Golf Mk. 4 with a flower vase next to the steering wheel. Then the Volkswagen Group A5 vehicle architecture of the Golf Mk. 6 served as the building block for the current model, packing up to five cylinders and 2.5 liters of displacement.
From air cooling to liquid cooling, rear-engined to front-engined, body-on-frame to unibody, the Beetle had a long and interesting run since it was unveiled in 1938. Soon after the second war to end all wars, the factory in Wolfsburg transitioned to civilian Beetle production in 1947. As a side note, Wolfsburg was founded in 1938 by the Nazi regime to house the German automaker’s workforce.
Over the years, the Beetle has been treated to countless special editions and one-off concepts. The Barbie, Denim, and Dune come to mind, but Volkswagen doesn’t plan to revive the nameplate anytime soon. Production at the Puebla factory will be reallocated to a compact SUV tailored to North America, slotted below the seven-seat Tiguan which is called Tiguan Allspace in the Old Continent.
Even without the Beetle, the peeps at Volkswagen took inspiration from the little bug when developing the ID.3 electric hatchback. The MEB-based vehicle features an electric motor at the rear, driving the rear wheels with up to 204 PS (201 horsepower) and 310 Nm (229 pound-feet) of torque.
The I.D. Buggy concept is rumored to enter limited production in the 2020s on the MEB, and if Volkswagen proves the rumors true, then the Beetle would get a spiritual successor of sorts. The best-known buggy with Beetle underpinnings is the Meyers Manx, which was built in limited numbers in the 1960s.

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Harald Krüger To Step Down As CEO Of BMW

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Published on July 6th, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Harald Krüger To Step Down As CEO Of BMW

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July 6th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

Just a few days ago, Klaus Fröhlich, the head of research and development for BMW, was whining to the press that nobody wants to buy electric cars. Well, actually, as it turns out, nobody wants to buy BMWs if the latest financials for the company are any indication. According to the Toronto Star, BMW has seen its position as Germany’s luxury car leader evaporate over the past few years and is facing strong financial pressure associated with developing electric and self driving cars that can compete with the likes of Tesla and other manufacturers.

The BMW Group has delivered more than 100,000 electrified vehicles to customers worldwide in 2017, as promised at the beginning of the year. An eye-catching light installation transformed the BMW Group headquarters, the world-famous “Four-Cylinder” in the north of Munich, on the evening of 18 December 2017 into a battery. (Ralph Larmann, 12/2017)

Now it reportedly will not renew the current contract for its CEO, Harald Krüger, when it expires next April. The company has just reported its weakest earnings in a decade, a reversal after sporting some of the highest profit margins in the automotive business for many years.

Krüger was chosen to lead the company in December, 2014 after his predecessor, Herbert Diess, left unexpectedly to take the reins at rival Volkswagen. In a statement to the press, he said, “After more than 10 years in the board of management, more than four of which as the CEO of the BMW Group, I would like to pursue new professional endeavors and leverage my diverse international experience for new projects and ventures.”

It is customary for German companies to renew the CEO’s contract one year before its termination. When BMW did not do so in April of this year, it started speculation that Krüger would step aside when his contract ended instead of signing on for another 5 year term.

BMW was once thought of as a leader in the nascent electric car field when it brought its highly innovative BMW i3 electric car to market in 2013. But, the company failed to capitalize on its early lead as it struggled to find a way forward for EVs.

BMW i3s at the National Drive Electric Week Event in Oxnard, California. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Krüger was “too cautious,” Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the CAR Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen tells The Star. “BMW was not able to use the head start for a new generation of electric vehicles.”

David Bailey, a professor at the Birmingham Business School, told CNN that BMW needed to accelerate its move into new technologies. “[Krüger has] done a very good job in recent years, but BMW faces some very big challenges going ahead. They felt the needed to bring in somebody new given the scale of the challenge.”

The Tesla Effect
It has not been lost on management or customers that the Tesla Model S is now the best selling large luxury car in Germany, which is hugely embarrassing to BMW as well as Mercedes-Benz and Audi. We may never know exactly how the changes in the marketplace brought about by Tesla have affected the fortunes of those companies but there is little question it has roiled the industry and forced companies to confront the coming electric vehicle revolution faster than they might done otherwise.

The Tesla Model S. Image courtesy: Tesla

In addition to being hit with an antitrust penalty of $1.6 billion by EU authorities recently, BMW has has been adversely affected by a rise in tariffs on vehicles exported to China from its plant in South Carolina due to the tariff war going on between the US and China. In March, it downgraded its profit projections for 2019 and announced a cost saving plan that will trim $13.6 billion in costs by the end of 2022. That plan focuses on dropping some models and streamlining vehicle development.

Bankwupt?
BMW says it is rushing to bring electric cars to market, but in truth, when your head of R&D says nobody wants to buy electric cars it is hard to take such statements seriously. At CleanTechnica, we have said for a while that some traditional car companies may go out of business or be forced to merge with other companies as a result of the arrival of electric vehicles.

BMW and Mercedes have indicated they will collaborate on the development of electric and self driving cars, a sign that a consolidation in the industry may already be under way. Unless BMW can get back on track with its development of competitive electric, autonomous vehicles, it could even be the first traditional automaker to go bankwupt — but it probably won’t be the last.

About the Author

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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