Daimler Boosts Earnings Despite Pandemic

Posted on February 18, 2021 by admin

Daimler CEO Ola Källenius said company turned a better-than-expected profit due to the cost-cutting measures implemented company wide.

Daimler AG reported profits increased 48% to $4.8 billion during 2020 in a challenging environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company’s total unit sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles decreased by 15%, to 2.84 million units while revenue dropped 11 percent. For the full year, Daimler’s net profit improved to $4.8 billion, compared to $3.2 billion.

However, cutting cost and cash preservation measures and steady performances across all divisions boosted earnings before interest taxes of the Daimler Group by 53 percent.

“The year 2020 was a stress test for just about every company in almost every industry. The Daimler team mastered this test very well,” said Ola Källenius, chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG.

Daimler products remain popular

Källenius added Daimler products continue to be in great demand across all major markets and divisions.

Daimler’s management team reviews the company’s financial results for 2020.

“With rapid growth in our xEV sales and the introduction of new products and technologies, we have also taken important steps in terms of electrification and digitalization,” said Källenius, adding the company’s financial results are significantly above market expectations.

“We proved our ability to generate substantial cash flow and to drive the ongoing transformation on our own – even under the adverse circumstances of a pandemic.”

At the Annual General Meeting on March 31, 2021, the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of 1.35 euros or $1.62 per share, up from 2019’s dividend of .90 euros or $1.08 per share.

Källenius added, “We are confident that we can maintain positive momentum if current market conditions prevail, accelerating our strategic plans and further enhancing our financial robustness.”

Separation still ready to go

Daimler AG is undergoing big changes in 2021 with the spinoff of the truck business.

Daimler plans to spin off and list Daimler Truck on Germany’s DAX index. The new Daimler Truck shares will be distributed to current Daimler shareholders. The new company will be just that: a new company. It will have an independent management team, stand-alone corporate governance including an independent Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

“The intended separation of our industrial businesses is designed to unlock the full potential for Mercedes-Benz as the world’s pre-eminent luxury car business,” he said. Additional details will be offered at a separate meeting in the third quarter of this year.

The transaction and the listing of Daimler Truck on the Frankfurt stock exchange is expected to be completed before year-end 2021. In addition, it is also Daimler’s intention to rename itself as Mercedes-Benz at the appropriate time.

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Kia Reshapes Brand, Teases 7 New BEVs, and New Line of What it Calls PBVs

Posted on January 15, 2021 by admin

Kia offers a hint of what’s to come as it prepares seven new all-electric models to launch by 2027.

Kia plans to roll out seven all-new battery-electric vehicles by 2027, along with four other plug-based models, the Korean carmaker’s CEO announced Friday morning from the company’s headquarters in Seoul, while also launching a new line of products dubbed Purpose-Built Vehicles, or PBVs.

They’re all part of a broader brand transformation Chief Executive Ho-Sung Song and other senior executives detailed during an online webinar and subsequent media roundtable. The company – which has dropped the word, “Motors” from its name, first teased its plans for a new direction when, last week, it revealed a new version of the Kia logo.

“Our great transformation begins right now, today,” proclaimed Song, emphasizing that Kia wants to be seen as a “mobility company,” not just an automotive manufacturer, going forward.

(Kia unveils new logo design that reflects focus on mobility.)

As part of the big brand transformation, said CEO Ho-Sung Song, the company will now be called just Kia Corp.

That’s a theme that a number of other automakers, including Ford, Volkswagen and even Kia’s bigger sibling, Hyundai, have played during the last several years. Hyundai, for its part, has backed that by announcing plans to enter a variety of new fields, including flying taxis and “ultimate mobility vehicles” capability of doing things like striding across boulder-strewn fields.

For the moment, at least, Kia is sticking with automobiles, but it does plan to change the way many of its products look, are powered and are sold and serviced, Song and other officials stressed during the more than hourlong presentation and media event that followed.

This wasn’t the first time that Kia revealed plans to bring an assortment of EVs to market – but the company offered more details than ever before, starting with an investment target of US$25 billion by 2025. Though there will be seven all-electric products, they will be dubbed EV1 through EV9 – which would suggest Kia might see fit to later fill the gaps.

Kia’s plans also call for the introduction of what it calls PBVs, or Purpose-Built Vehicles.

A number of the models were seen on stage, albeit deeply within shadow. But it was clear that the majority of them will adopt crossover-style forms with Kia confirming they will share a skateboard-like platform, like most of the new EVs other manufacturers are bringing to market. Kia previously announced the architecture will be known as the E-GMP and will have the ability to use either a single motor on the rear axle or twin motors, one on each axle.

(Kia readying first dedicated battery-electric vehicle.)

In a quick rundown, Kia’s global design chief Karim Habib described several of the upcoming models as “a fun and practical commuter” car, “a powerful and dynamic crossover,” “a strong and bold SUV,” an “agile and dynamic machine,” and a long and elegant sedan.”

The very first of the all-electric models will be revealed this spring, for launch in 2022. He stressed that it will take advantage of the fact that its motors and batteries will be under the load floor to have a unique exterior and interior layout. And Habib added that it will adopt “a typology (or design form) that will be quite unique and which you haven’t seen before.”

The Kia Carnival will replace the old Sedona – and be the first Kia model to wear the brand’s new logo.

Expect to see Kia introduce a new, more “expressive” and “emotional” design language moving forward, Habib suggested. It won’t start over from square one, however. The brand’s familiar “tiger nose” grille will remain part of the new vocabulary, he said, “It is part of the heritage we are proud of (but) it allows for a lot of flexibility. It is important for each product to get its owner character,” said Habib, adding, “You will see it (the grille) in different shapes and forms.”

In line with Kia’s desire to be more than just a conventional automotive manufacturer, the automaker said it will start producing PBVs that appear to be dedicated for use in commercial operations, such as ride-sharing — including those operating autonomously. It described the initial models as a “micro-autonomous pod,” a “small individual urban transporter, “a “midsize commuter, “ and a large logistic companion.”

The first of those could be ready within a year using an existing Kia platform and a conventional internal combustion engine. Further out, the PBVs appear likely to be based on the Kia EV technology now under development.

The use of names like EV1 through EV9 fit in with the broader shift to an alphanumeric nomenclature for most future Kia products, such as the K5 sedan that recently replaced the old Optima model, said marketing chief Artur Martins.

(Kia will replace the old Sedona minivan with the new Carnival.)

But some light truck products will retain familiar names, such as the familiar Kia Sportage. Even so, the shift will be to using global badges, the outgoing Sedona minivan being replaced by the Carnival model later this year.

Once known for what were euphemistically referred to as “cheap and cheerful products,” Kia has moved upmarket in recent years with offerings such as the big Telluride SUV and K9 sedan. While Martins said the corporate aspiration is to get buyers to opt for more lavishly equipped models, he stressed that, “We do not intend to be a premium brand,” adding that, “Affordability will still be important” to Kia.

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BMW Does a Complete U-Turn on its EV Program

Posted on November 4, 2020 by admin

The production version of the i4 Concept will reach the U.S. next year. It will use a shared platform.

A week before unveiling the all-new iNext battery-electric vehicle, BMW said it will “realign” its strategy and begin developing a unique architecture solely for “electric drives,” rather than sharing the same platform for vehicles using both battery and conventional gas and diesel powertrains.

That’s a complete about face for the Bavarian marque which, in recent years, had hoped to save money and simplify manufacturing by coming up with common architectures that could roll off the same line. But it also marks a return to BMW’s original strategy when electrified models like the all-electric i3 city car and plug-in hybrid i8 sports car used unique platforms.

“The aim is to create an overall optimum with the new architecture,” CEO Oliver Zipse said during BMW’s quarterly earnings presentation on Wednesday.

(BMW preps for i4 launch, confirms plans for all-electric 5-Series and X1.)

Over the past decade, the auto industry has gone back and forth on the appropriate approach to developing electrified vehicles, pure battery-electric models, in particular. Some, like the Ford Focus Electric and the Volkswagen e-Golf, shared common platforms with the gas and diesel versions of those vehicles. Others, such as the original BMW i models, as well as the new Ford Mustang Mach-E and VW ID.3, used unique architectures.

BMW says the production iNext should get nearly 400 miles of range per charge.

Each approach had both pluses and minuses. Shared platforms result in design compromises, often limiting the amount of batteries that could be stored on a vehicle – impacting range, among other things. But development costs can be held down, while increasing the flexibility of a company’s assembly lines.

Unique platforms, most adopting a skateboard-style layout with batteries and motors mounted below the load floor, can handle larger packs, increasing range and lowering a vehicle’s center of gravity. But that means additional development costs and the tooling up of plants dedicated solely to EVs.

With an upcoming wave of new products BMW had aimed for a compromise strategy. They use flexible platforms that can squeeze more batteries under the load floor for models like the all-electric i4 fastback due out next year. But there’s space for a conventional internal combustion engine for products such as the next BMW 4-Series.

Now, , “We will realign our vehicle architecture from the middle of the decade,” said Zipse, adding that, “Our new cluster architecture is geared towards electric drives” exclusively.

BMW’s i3 is one of the automaker’s best-selling electric vehicles. It uses a unique, rather than shared, platform.

“Our new plant in Hungary plays a key role here,” said the CEO, noting that production of “the new BEV-centered architecture will start there.”

(BMW and Mercedes suspend joint autonomous vehicle development program.)

The plan is to make the new strategy a high priority, an all-new product development operation reporting directly to Zipse. But it will be able to reach out to all other areas within the company, from engineering to sales and marketing which “gives us more control and makes us much faster,” he explained.

The shared platform strategy had come under intense scrutiny within BMW, noted German magazine Automobilwoche, Over the summer, Manfred Wochs, the head of the BMW Works Council, had warned that it resulted in “too many compromises” that could set BMW back competitively, especially in key markets like the U.S. and China.

BMW is racing to get a leg up in an emerging market segment that currently is dominated by the upstart Tesla – with an assortment of traditional competitors, as well as start-ups like Lucid, Fisker and Rivian, aiming to gain share.

But Zipse insisted that BMW will be ready when its new EVs hit market around 2025. “We anticipate that the demand for fully electric vehicles will continue to increase significantly from 2025 onwards. Exactly then – keyword timing – we will ignite phase III of our transformation.”

(BMW may go for a plug-in hybrid with upcoming X8 M.)

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