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In May, Ditte Dieter Zetsche, 66, who has been at the helm of Daimler for 13 years, officially retired as chairman of Daimler's board and global president of Mercedes-Benz. Immediately, BMW officially released a short film to pay tribute to Zetsche, causing netizens to watch. This is not only a rival, but also a friend relationship, so that consumers around the world have seen the profound friendship between German luxury car companies for a century.

In early July, Harald Kr ü ger, chairman and CEO of BMW, proposed to the supervisory board that he would not be re-elected and left the management committee on August 15th. On August 16th, BMW Group announced its latest decision, and the new chairman and CEO Oliver Zipse officially took office. And what kind of spark will be produced by the change of the head of the group?

On his first day in office, Chipze sent an internal email to employees urging them to accept change and find innovative ways to help the company surpass rival Mercedes-Benz, Reuters reported.

Both Chipze and Kruger were promoted from head of manufacturing to chairman and CEO of BMW Group. Chipze, 55, joined BMW Group in 1991 as a trainee in R & D and production, and then became a director of BMW Group and promoted to head of production in 2015. During this period, he also held a number of management positions, including factory director at Oxford and senior vice president of corporate planning and product strategy.

BMW has been beaten by Mercedes-Benz since 2016. Mercedes-Benz, the global luxury brand sales champion, took it for three years in a row, and the champion belonged to BMW for 11 years until 2016. BMW intends to fight back after replacing its chairman and CEO.

"We don't always have to be first, but we almost certainly have to be far ahead of our competitors in everything we do," Chipze said. This applies not only to products and services, but also to our processes and company structure, as well as our costs. " Chipze also said that BMW has narrowed the sales gap with Mercedes-Benz and is ready to launch more models.

In 2018, the Mercedes-Benz brand sold 2.31 million vehicles worldwide and the BMW brand sold 1.9594 million. From January to July 2019, BMW's global sales rose 0.9 per cent to 1.436 million, while Mercedes-Benz's global sales fell 2.8 per cent to 1.393 million. BMW is expected to overtake this year.

Came to the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz and BMW championship competition is also very fierce, neck and neck. From January to July 2019, Mercedes-Benz sold 410000 vehicles in China, while BMW sold 404000 and Audi sold 368000. Mercedes-Benz and BMW will be the top sellers of luxury brands in 2019.

In terms of group strategy, Chipze supports the expansion of new energy vehicles and provides more production flexibility. Ziptzer has been advocating a manufacturing system that allows electric, hybrid and conventional cars to be produced on the same production line to increase flexibility in the face of uncertain demand.

The adjustment of BMW is to completely surpass Mercedes-Benz and return to the top position of luxury brand sales.

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