OEMs
We need to hear MORE stories like this of execs being poached but in reverse.
I am just going to flat out say it. Most of the traditional OEMs, regardless of whether we’re talking Wolfsburg, Toyota City or Detroit, don’t have the right firepower or enough of it on their current management teams to build the products and services, then market them, and as importantly do it fast enough, to properly compete with the products & services coming out of Silicon Valley and China.
Ever since Tesla started poaching auto execs in the late 2000’s we’ve seen a number of them head west, but why is it so hard to attract tech folks to the OEMs? You know what, that answer DOESN’T EVEN MATTER because it must be done if the OEMs want to be players in Mobility 3.0. Do they need to be from Silicon Valley, of course not, but Silicon Valley is a target-rich environment so there’s a much higher likelihood the people with the necessary skills will be there. Here’s a quick example of what I am talking about.
Tesla in the mid-2000s, like many EV Startups currently, was struggling to stay afloat and put products that people wanted on the roads and one of the reasons for those struggles was because they had too many tech folks in key decision-making roles. If you look back at 2008, they really began to broaden their hiring scope to include ‘auto’ people. I believe the hiring of Deepak Ahuja & Franz von Holzhausen, both poached from OEMs, along with auto folks in supply chain, sourcing, manufacturing, etc. made a HUGE difference and helped them turn the corner. I highlight the Deepak and Franz hires because they were put into leadership roles and that’ll also be key for the OEMs.
Poaching needs to be aggressive and it needs to be often. There will be flameouts and employees that don’t fit the environment or culture, potentially lots of them. That’s just a necessary cost of doing business for now, at least until the culture, and pace of decision-making and execution speed up substantially at the OEMs.
Until I see more announcements of external leadership hires from GM, Ford, VW, Toyota, and the tier 1’s, I’ll know the companies are still in denial and aren’t serious about competing, let alone winning. It’s like the OEMs are playing basketball with Chuck Taylors on (a classic and timeless shoe for sure BTW) when the team they’re playing against have the latest kicks with the cutting edge fabric and synthetic materials from Nike on. All else being equal, it won’t even be close.
You guys that work at the OEMs (and tier 1’s) - both leadership and rank and file, if you DON’T think more outsiders with the proper technical skills & experience your departments currently lack, need to join your roster to improve your company’s overall competitiveness and to give you a better chance to survive, then YOU are definitely part of the problem.
I am jumping off my soapbox now.
#externalhires #moreoutsiders #leadershiproles #getserious #OEMs #moretechfolks
EVs
The move towards EVs has encouraged many new players to step up to the plate. That’s a good thing.
By sheer sales numbers the China auto market is the largest in the world and likely in the coming years will extend its lead over the #2 US market. It’s amazing how the Chinese auto sector has grown from non-existent to #1 in the span of ~30 years. Recently, due to the Chinese govt’s interest in becoming a leader in the EV & vehicle battery sectors, we’ve seen many new brands popping up, many of which we’ve covered pretty extensively. As these companies have experienced for themselves how difficult it is to raise capital as well as design and build cars, many weaker players decided to tap out, either voluntarily or not. Over the last 4-5 years, the number of EVStartups has gone from what many analysts speculated was ~500 players to now where it would be tough to name more than 12-15 survivors.
Contrast that with the US auto market which is over 100 years old. The US has gone through quite a few economic & technology cycles and there have been many auto brands, both foreign and domestic, that thought they had the right stuff to succeed in the sector but were quickly chewed up and spit out and no longer exist today. We can point to many reasons for this, lack of capital, fierce competition, and/or just an overall lack of understanding the American consumers being just a few.
With both the China and US markets moving towards EVs, what we’re seeing now is a growing number of new Chinese and American EV startups. Some are completely new companies like WM Motor, NIO, XPeng, Rivian, Bollinger, and Lucid who are trying their hand at designing and building EVs for the first time. Along with the newbies are the traditional OEMs who are either pivoting existing brands, introducing sub-brands or creating all-new brands themselves to launch products for both the Chinese, EU & US markets.
It’s like the wild, wild west right now with an announcement about an investment, partnership, or a vehicle intro seemingly every week! New products, services, and revenue models are being launched and tested. COVID-19 has accelerated interest in these new ‘businesses’ and with the Chinese govt. essentially guaranteeing that there will be an EV market in China sooner rather than later, international automakers are being pushed to enter the market likely before they’re ready, although you could argue if they’d ever be ‘ready.’
The crazy thing is – The big, bad OEMs don’t really have as many advantages in this environment as they would if the vehicle powertrains burned petrol. This level playing field allows companies like Tesla to steal headlines every week. I am excited to see what comes next, especially once these startups with ‘promise’ have their products out on the roads. What’s going to follow is an era of continuous innovation as EVs transition to AVs while connectivity creates opportunities for new services to be thought of and sold to users. We should see really strange bedfellows, as well as companies, scramble to put together a full set of offerings to their install bases.
This is gonna be fun. Because I’ll be there each and every step of the way, helping the ambitious companies take leadership positions in the market.
#EVs #newblood majorpivot #whowillwin #levelplayingfield #lovethisstuff
LAST MILE MOBILITY
The shift to two wheels is real and it will be lasting.
Giant, the world’s largest manufacturer of bicycles is having a hard time keeping up with demand and if they’re having trouble keeping up, I wouldn’t expect the bicycle you just ordered to arrive any time soon. The increased popularity in e-bikes is really exacerbating a tight supply situation as well.
Where Bonnie Tu – Giant’s chairwoman and I differ in our views, and just to be clear hers is much more informed than mine, is that I believe that the spike in demand of bicycles globally is not some flash in the pan and that it’ll last for quite some time. In other words, it’ll create new habits. Habits that will dramatically change transportation needs.
It’ll have so much impact that it will push cities all over the world to reconsider how to accommodate them on their streets. It’s already happening in cities like Paris, Madrid, NYC, and SF just to name a few off of the top of my head.
This is a good thing BTW since, if planned for properly, should help with traffic flow and lower pollution while reducing the need for so much parking. It should create a bunch of opportunities for new businesses that can take advantage of this shift to blossom.
#Giant #Taichung #bicycle #highdemand #heretostay #needmorebikes