Mercedes CEO is happy to compete with Chinese EV makers

CGTN Europe

In an exclusive interview with CGTN, Ola Källenius says his company wants to be able to make cars in China and take on the hundreds of innovative competitors there. He urged policymakers to find ways to remove barriers to trade such as tariffs.  #mercedes #ceo

Transcript

00:00The Chinese car market I think probably is the most competitive car market in the world now.

00:06One of the reasons is so many new entrants.

00:08It's like a hundred companies plus that is vying for this market and also vying for the new EV market.

00:15We have every opportunity to partake in that competition.

00:20And I think the recipe for success if you want to be one of the winners in that game,

00:25and that is what we're doing at Mercedes-Benz,

00:27is you need to double down on what the Chinese customer is looking for.

00:31So if you have adjustments to be made to your products to better cater for the Chinese customers, do that.

00:37Do it on location so you can quickly react to what the market needs.

00:41For instance, in the digital space, we have built up a significant R&D team in China for China

00:48to be able to track to the market but also take advantage of the cost structure that you have in China.

00:54There is nothing impeding us from doing that.

00:57So in my meeting with Minister Wang, we talked about that.

01:01We said very clearly our intent to increase our investments in China,

01:06but also to say to him and his European counterparts,

01:10you're in the trade dispute right now.

01:12It was started by the EU.

01:14See if you can find common ground.

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