Deutsche Bahn, Cariad, Volkswagen, BMW, Mini, Mercedes: manage:mobility from manager magazin

Top topic: The trillion game with the car software

The bosses of the German car manufacturers actually know where they want to go – at least since Tesla boss

(50) has been driving them:

,

and

want to mutate into software companies.

If we succeed in implanting a central operating system in the cars, keeping them fresh almost forever with updates and at some point even controlling them autonomously, dream returns beckon.

If you don't succeed - there is a risk of a crash.

The problem: There are problems with the implementation, the switch is more difficult than the one to the electric drive, warns Volkswagen boss

(63).

No one trusts anyone, much-heralded alliances have failed just as much as secretly negotiated ones, everyone is tinkering alone and too slowly.

My colleagues Michael Freitag and Margret Hucko spoke to many insiders.

Your damage report: The tormenting code of the German car manufacturer.

Additional scoop: If you can't do it alone, you need help.

This is how

negotiates a billion dollar deal with the Chinese company

.

Logically, this is also about software, autonomous driving and a lot of expertise that you don’t have yourself.

Huawei, help!

Heads: Wolfgang Reitzle ++ Steffi Lemke ++ Hiltrud Werner

• In his role as head of the Continental Supervisory Board, Wolfgang Reitzle

  (72) is looking for a way out of the misery on the stock market – and quite radically so.

  The plan for the split of the group is in place.

  Not only the division for autonomous driving could be (partly) sold - the divisions Automotive and ContiTech could also be sold or listed on the stock exchange.

  It would remain: the highly profitable tire business, which according to the calculations alone could be worth as much as the entire group is today.

  Added up, Conti would suddenly be worth 50 billion, according to the calculation.

• Steffi Lemke

  (54), Green Federal Minister for the Environment, is disappointed with the federal government's agreement on the CO2 limits for the car industry, because perhaps more could have been achieved.

  After a word of authority from the Chancellor, Germany is not aiming for stricter rules than those specified by the EU Commission.

  Minus 55 percent compared to 2021 to 2030.

  That was clearly too much for the car bosses.

• Hiltrud Werner

  (55), board member at Volkswagen until the beginning of the year, becomes a member of the executive committee of the SPD economic forum.

  Just like the ex-Bahn board member

  Sabina Jeschke

  (53).

  A short line to the chancellery can never hurt.

Company: BMW ++ Mercedes-Benz ++ Tesla

• The margins of the

  BMW

  subsidiary

  Mini

  are depressing the overall performance, and the new boss

  Stefanie Wurst

  (53) will probably not be able to change anything about the meager sales figures any time soon.

  CEO

  Oliver Zipse

  (58) is pushing ahead with a more radical solution anyway: a partial exit from the Mini – and a far-reaching alliance with the Chinese group

  Great Wall

  .

  The China plan for Mini.

• At

  Mercedes-Benz

  , semiconductors are becoming so scarce that no further orders for the mass-produced Benz are being accepted in Germany.

  Or in other words: The E-Class is sold out.

  And at

  Volkswagen

  , the main plant in Wolfsburg is so badly affected by the lack of chips that Herbert Diess and works council chief

  Daniela Cavallo

  (47) already had the next issue at a works meeting.

• In another commodity deal with a mine operator, Tesla

  has secured direct access to hundreds of thousands of tons of lithium.

Exclusive background: Deutsche Bahn

The ailing state-owned company has so far crushed every transport minister.

Things could be different for

(51), writes my colleague Michael Machatschke.

The FDP minister is working on a radical reform - with prominent victims and without a clumsy crowbar.

The subsidiaries for the railway network are to be merged into a "new public welfare-oriented" unit - and no longer transfer profits to the railways.

Deprived of the cash cow, it would become clear how precarious the situation is for the group and its bogus giants.

There would be: CEO

(57) and above all infrastructure colleague

(62).

Number of the week: 1326

According to official official documents, this is how many kilograms

the battery alone weighs in the planned electric

from the US car

Easily more than an entire car from other manufacturers.

After all, it should accelerate the 4-ton colossus from zero to one hundred in around three seconds.

Kind of martial.

Even more mobility: Lufthansa ++ GoMechanic ++ Cogo

• An Italian affair employs

  Lufthansa

  boss

  Carsten Spohr

  (55).

  Together with the shipowner

  Gianluigi Aponte

  (81), he is known to be courting the takeover of the new state airline Ita.

  But, as is so often the case with affairs, one wants more.

  In this case Spohr.

  My colleague Michael Machatschke describes his secret plan.

• The highly aggressive venture capital investor

  Tiger Global

  apparently wants to pump a lot of money into an Indian start-up called

  GoMechanic

  , which runs an app-supported workshop chain in India - and with which Tiger money would become a unicorn.

• And even more interesting start-ups that we have never heard of:

  Cogo

  from Copenhagen takes over

  eScoot

  to - Attention!

  – to become the leading shared mobility aggregator in Europe.

Deep Drive: Study of the week

A field trial of global proportions is currently taking place in Lemgo.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB have equipped a traffic light with artificial intelligence, including radar and lidar sensors, at an intersection.

Their goal: Accelerate the flow of traffic for cars, cyclists and pedestrians with intelligent red-green phases.

Lo and behold: the researchers report 10 to 15 percent more efficiency.

If you consider that the EU calculates an annual economic damage of 100 billion euros due to traffic jams, there is now a billion traffic light in Lemgo.

ghost driver of the week

In the second attempt, VW boss

community on Wednesday evening

.

This is undoubtedly different than when investors and analysts pester you.

The goal, however, should be similar: generate stock euphoria.

One asked to release an electric version of the Beetle.

"If anyone should do it, it's a guy named Herbie!"

And he answered like this: In addition to the Bulli, for which he was particularly committed, many other cars are conceivable - "yes" - on the electric MEB platform.

Go, Herbie, go!

I wish you an eventful week!

Sincerely yours, Lukas Heiny