Hydrogen, China and the future with Mercedes CEO

CGTN Europe

Mercedes Benz CEO Ola Källenius gives an inside look at the role electric and renewables will play in the changing automobile landscape.  “It's very clear that for passenger cars, the main road is battery electric vehicles on that path towards zero emission. But hydrogen will play a role in the general energy transformation. So as we move away from fossils and we seek new storage mediums for energy, it's obvious that hydrogen will be one of them. It's going to be used in industry, for instance, for steelmaking,” Källenius said.  2023 marked a big year for Mercedes Benz in terms of renewable energy, selling more than 222,000 fully electric vehicles; 11 percent of the company’s total trade volume, and Källenius says it’s just the start.  #mercedes #amg #mercedesbenz #cars #car #c #benz #mercedesamg #e #g #carsofinstagram #luxury #auto #cls #supercars

Transcript

00:00 It's very clear that for passenger cars the main road are battery electric vehicles on that path towards zero emission.

00:08 But hydrogen will play a role in the general energy transformation.

00:13 So as we move away from fossils and we seek new storage mediums for energy, it's obvious that hydrogen will be one of them.

00:21 So it's going to be used in industry.

00:23 For instance, for steelmaking, we are now sourcing CO2-reduced or even CO2-free steel in the future, where hydrogen plays a role.

00:31 And also our friends at the Daimler Truck Division, which is a separate company now, they are working on hydrogen drive for heavy trucks,

00:41 where maybe that is the crossover where this technology makes more sense at this stage.

00:46 How critical is it for Mercedes to hang on to the high-end part of the Chinese market when it comes to selling luxury vehicles in China,

00:58 when it comes to weathering the particularly tricky financial seas that we are seeing in Germany at the moment?

01:05 China alone is almost as big as if you put Europe and the United States together.

01:10 So it's not a surprise that also for our vehicles also at the upper end, China will have a dominant position.

01:18 If you look at wealth growth in China over the last decade, couple of decades, it has been significant.

01:24 And more and more people are coming into the group, the buying group, where maybe they're looking at the Mercedes-Benz brand.

01:31 So in spite of maybe some short-term, a little bit slower growth, in the long term, with the denominator being as big as it is,

01:40 even at slower growth rates, China in absolute economic terms remains a dominating force that is important for us.

01:48 I'm going to stick with that theme. Plans for future investment in that Chinese market?

01:53 What are you looking at for Mercedes? What are the plans for the future?

01:56 We have, particularly in the last 12 months, doubled down on research and development.

02:02 Only a couple of years ago, we opened a brand new research center in our home city of Beijing.

02:09 But we added another digital hub in Shanghai a little over 12 months ago and hired several hundred talented engineers,

02:17 software engineers, digital engineers, to really push innovation forward.

02:22 And China is such a dynamic innovation environment at the moment.

02:27 And we want to tap into that. And in terms of our production investments, there we will follow the market.

02:32 I think we're very well positioned together with our joint venture partner.

02:36 [END]

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