“Change, change, change”

German premium car manufacturer Daimler faces possibly the greatest change in its history, Max Hägler and Stefan Mayr write in Süddeutsche Zeitung. With 30 billion euros in investments within the next two years, Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetsche seems determined “to turn the company with its 282,000 employees inside out”, the authors write. A new Daimler division called “CASE” – which stands for Connectivity, Autonomy, Shared driving, and E-mobility - epitomises this endeavour, Hägler and Mayr explain. “Each one of these topics has the potential to roll up our industry,” Zetsche said. Daimler not only wants to offer ten different e-cars under its brand EQ by 2025, it also invests in autonomous driving, long-distance coaches, car sharing, drone delivery, public transportation apps and more, Hägler and Mayr write. Asked when any of these investments would yield a profit, Zetsche admitted he was not “in a position to give a reliable answer to that”.

Read the article in German here.

For background, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers and the CLEW factsheet Reluctant Daimler plans “radical” push into new mobility world.