AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/21 Report--

Last September, Daimler announced that current CEO Zetsche will officially step down in May 2019, and will be replaced by Kang Linsong, who is a member of Daimler's board of directors and is in charge of group research and development of Mercedes-Benz.

The incoming Daimler's new CEO has made it clear many times that he will make cost-cutting plans, while as the auto industry develops in new directions such as self-driving and electric cars, R & D costs are rising and will work with other car companies to reduce transformation costs.

Recently, it was reported that Daimler's cost-cutting plan is more specific. The German "Manager's Magazine" reported that Conlinson, who will succeed Zetsche as Daimler's CEO on May 22, is currently promoting a cost-saving plan, which plans to cut 10000 jobs and cut costs by $6.75 billion. The cost-saving plan will take effect in 2021.

According to the report, Kang Linsong will press ahead with layoffs, which may cut 10000 from the current 298700 employees in the medium term, but in a "socially acceptable" manner.

In addition, Daimler's partnership with Renault-Nissan is also likely to end. According to Manager Magazine, Daimler's current technology partnership with the Renault-Nissan alliance will be cancelled. The two sides had previously shared car platforms and engines and set up a joint factory in Aguscalentes, Mexico.

As early as February, Daimler announced a "comprehensive" cost-cutting plan, and in early March Daimler CEO said it was too early to release details of the cost-cutting plan, and now Daimler's cost-cutting plan seems to be coming to light as Conlinson's last term approaches.

Over the past year, Daimler's total sales rose 2.4% to 3.4 million vehicles, but net profit plunged 28% to 7.6 billion euros ($8.6 billion). Mercedes-Benz's passenger car division sold more than 2.3 million vehicles last year, growing for the eighth year in a row and becoming the world's highest-selling luxury car brand, although revenue and profit margins fell last year.

In the first quarter of this year, the Mercedes-Benz brand sold 561000 vehicles worldwide, down 5.6 per cent from the same period last year. Among them, Mercedes-Benz global sales also fell in March from a year earlier, falling 4.1 per cent to 228000 vehicles. In view of this, Daimler's first-quarter results will continue to decline.

As the auto industry moves in new directions such as self-driving and electric cars, Daimler has gradually focused on these businesses. Daimler has invested 1.1 billion in future mobile travel services with BMW and set up five travel joint ventures to challenge tech competitors such as Uber, Waymo and Didi. While R & D costs are gradually rising, Kang Linsong has also said that he is willing to work with other automakers and technology companies to share the high cost of technological transformation.

Daimler has already partnered with BMW Group to set up a joint venture with plans to jointly launch an electric vehicle priced between 27500 euros and 32500 euros, a price range that provides an opportunity to open up the mass market for electric vehicles. A new factory with a seven-year capacity of 1 million electric vehicles will also be built in China and the capacity will be shared.

There are also media reports that BMW and Daimler are in talks to jointly develop an electric vehicle platform, which could save at least 7 billion euros each. The two companies have confirmed that they are in talks, including sharing the engineering costs of self-driving cars, but BMW and Daimler have repeatedly declined to say whether the partnership includes a vehicle platform.

Interconnection of car sharing, self-driving technology, electric cars and so on have become the general trend of the future, and the auto industry is facing great changes, and cost-cutting is already a trend, not just Daimler. Automakers such as BMW, Volkswagen, Porsche, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford and Renault-Nissan are all planning billions of dollars of spending cuts in the coming years to prepare for future product lines.

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