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      12-27-2020, 03:51 PM   #1
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Interview with BMW CEO Oliver Zipse

BIMMERPOST
     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com
https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de...d58808686.html

Google Translation:
Quote:
EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Zipse wants to sell more e-cars than planned in the coming years. But the expansion of the charging stations is not going fast enough.

Mr. Zipse , you were a young man in Japan and you are married to a Japanese woman. What can we learn from the people of the country?

Oliver Zipse: In Japan people like to think things through to the end and involve as many people as possible. It takes a little longer to come to a decision. But then resolutions are implemented consistently and quickly. From this I learned that as a manager you are well advised not to simply rule from top to bottom, but to take all aspects into account by involving the employees in order to then quickly implement them. So you are robustly positioned. The Japanese refer to this calm method as "cutting rose roots", nemawashi.
So the manager becomes a gardener.

Zipse: In management, it is important to understand the positions of others and to include them in the decision-making process. This insight shaped me, as well as the Japanese principles of avoiding waste and continuously improving processes. I am also impressed by the fundamental Japanese understanding that there is never a state that is finished.

How do we think German managers have values?

Zipse: In our culture we tend to orientate ourselves towards ideals. When you combine ideals with the Japanese principle of permanent improvement, great things can come about. If we stay in the garden figuratively, then a car is something like a bouquet of flowers: In the end, a successful bouquet is much more than the sum of individual flowers and grasses. The plants have to be fertilized and grow, cut correctly and, at the end, put together very individually to form a bouquet. The parallel to the vehicle: The individual components can be manufactured by many - but only the correct interaction, in the case of the car, we call this system integration, creates a unique product. This is great art.

Speaking of roses, ideals and morals: why did BMW, in contrast to VW, Audi and Daimler, drive through the diesel crisis free of accidents, i.e. scandal-free, while the competition rushed into the abyss of fraud?

Zipse: Because we have the undisputed basic conviction that facts must not be falsified. A targeted approach to inadmissible manipulation of exhaust emissions is not acceptable to us and we made a commitment over ten years ago to closely link our principle of "sheer driving pleasure" with the principle of sustainability. We still call it "Efficient Dynamics" today.

What does that mean in concrete terms?

Zipse: We aim to always offer the most efficient drive with the lowest emissions while maintaining the same performance. That is why, for example, we have been using the most modern technologies to reduce emissions with diesel for years, which cost a lot of money - but give us a competitive advantage: our diesel fleet emits less nitrogen oxide on average than the competition. We have set a mark in the industry because we have used more complex and better technology.

But was it only because of the expensive technology that BMW was spared its fate as a diesel sinner? What role did the corporate culture play?

Zipse: Thanks to the lived BMW culture with an open discussion, I consider it almost impossible to secretly, purposefully and deliberately manipulate emissions values.

For real?

Zipse: We have a close exchange in order to find the best solutions. In my estimation, it would not have been possible to do such a thing deliberately. Our values ​​also include a sense of duty. We always want the best technical solution. And we also passionately struggle to find the best technical solution. Our approach is a bit Japanese, so to speak, because we allow such discussions. We involve everyone involved, which can also be exhausting. But it's worth it: Because we are not satisfied with supposedly simple solutions out of convenience.

Are BMW engineers allowed to disagree with the CEO?

Zipse: Of course. You must not only contradict me, you should even contradict me with good arguments. I openly demand that. Thinking about hierarchies would be completely out of place. All arguments have to be on the table in order to make the best decision. At the end of the day, of course, a decision has to be made - you shouldn't miss this point in time.

You have now decided to at least get a taste of the film industry and appear next to the German-Austrian Oscar winner Christoph Waltz in a BWW commercial for the new iX electric car. What was that experience for you?

Zipse: I got along very well with Christoph Waltz right away. And by the way, he also understands how complex our industry is. It's similar to the movie industry. However, the main experience for me was how long it can take to record a five-minute film sequence. It can take several hours until the recording is finished. Christoph Waltz had already warned me. The advantage was that we both had more time to talk to each other.

You are in the middle of a long film, namely the conquest of electric mobility. When it comes to e-cars, you describe yourself as a "man of conviction". How is BMW doing behind the scenes at the film? How do you direct?

Zipse: The BMW board of directors is in charge of the process by specifying the direction and agreeing goals. In terms of sustainability, the basis is the Paris Climate Agreement for 2050. This is a very long period of time, and none of those involved today will still be in office. The first steps have to be taken now. Step by step. That is why we at BMW have set very specific climate targets for ourselves by 2030. Then the cars we are developing today will still be on the road. Climate protection is relevant now and not just the day after tomorrow. We want to live up to our corporate responsibility for the climate and we laid the foundation for this as early as 2013 with the i3 electric car. For us, this car stands for long-term thinking.

Are you continuing to build the i3? There are now many new electric cars from your company on the market?

Zipse: That's right, by 2023 we will already have 25 electrified models on the road - half of them fully electric, such as the 7 Series, the 5 Series or the X1 and the BMW iX and the i4. MINI is also already electric. The i3 is and remains the pioneer for this offensive and is now in its eighth year of production. A car has never run so long with us. And the i3 is selling better and better, even if there were of course slight losses compared to 2019 due to the corona. The i3 is a compact car that still offers a lot of space - ideal for the big city and very economical in consumption: to this day, the i3 is one of the electric cars that require the least amount of electricity per 100 kilometers.

So are you continuing to build the i3? In the beginning he didn't live up to expectations.

Zipse: The i3 has not yet reached the end of its life cycle. He will continue to be with us as long as customers are interested. So we're continuing to build it. The auto industry is regulated by the state, for example the CO2 emissions of our vehicles. But it is organized in a market economy. So we depend largely on the buying behavior of our customers. But every customer who now buys a car with the latest technology makes an active contribution to climate protection, even if it is not an electric car.

Climate protection and diesel or gasoline - how do they go together?


Zipse: Anyone who swaps their old car, which is ten to 15 years old, for a new one, is making a contribution to climate protection. Because the technologies in all drive forms have become so much better and more environmentally friendly. There is a climate protection contribution in every BMW. With our new 1 Series, we have been able to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 15 percent. Thanks to filter technology, modern diesel drives emit almost no fine dust at all. And in the case of nitrogen oxides, the limit values ​​are clearly undercut even in real operation. Modern diesels are more than 50 times better than ten-year-old vehicles.

Nevertheless, it would be better for the climate to drive electric cars if they are charged with eco-energy.

Zipse: Sure, but many people around the world still have no access to charging stations for electric cars. In this case, they can also make a contribution to climate protection with modern diesel and gasoline cars.

How then do some huge SUVs fit in with your climate protection promises?

Zipse: Because most people in Europe only own one car, this car has to combine everything: it goes on vacation, transports are carried out, a move is carried out and children are driven. At the same time, the car should bring joy to the driver. That's why SUVs are so popular. These cars are just very practical. It's not about driving these SUVs off-road. It is now our job to provide a sustainable and environmentally friendly answer to the customer's need for a car for all walks of life, from mini to luxury class.

Will most of the drivers be driving huge electric SUVs in 20 years?

Zipse: That will certainly not happen that way. It is correct: The demand for convertibles and roadsters has been shrinking for years. Yet many still swear by these cars. Our 3 and 5-series sedans or the coupés of the 4-series are very popular and remain the core of the brand.

But a coupé, even a 3-series BMW, is much nicer than an SUV.

Zipse: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So beauty is in the eye of the beholder. For real?

Zipse: A BMW has to be aesthetic in every class. But one thing is clear: the flat vehicle concepts are the heart of BMW, even if today almost half of our sales are SUVs. This heart will never be lost. Our future electric car i4 will therefore also be a flat car, a beautiful Gran Coupé. So BMW will not be a pure manufacturer of SUVs. Promised!

And what do you oppose the US challenger Tesla, who would like to overtake the German premium suppliers on the left electric? Have the domestic manufacturers got on the defensive here?

Zipse: Let's look soberly at the figures for the first eleven months of this year in Germany: According to this, 11.9 percent of all vehicles sold have a plug, i.e. they are purely electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. And of that 11.9 percent, 0.5 percentage points come from Tesla. BMW is here at 1.1 percentage points - more than twice as high. And it is not much different in Europe.

Would the German manufacturers still have to rely on electric cars much earlier and more decisively?

Zipse: We have known for many years that electric mobility will only really get going this year. This is a consequence of the next stage of EU fleet legislation, which will not start until this year. That is why the corresponding vehicles are now coming onto the market. No manufacturer can afford to put cars on the market that become slow-moving. We are not too late with e-cars, we start at exactly the right time. So BMW has by no means slept through the electric trend; instead, we have rebuilt our plants in such a way that - depending on customer demand - electric cars can also be built there. That is why we will be producing all-electric cars in all four German automobile plants as early as 2022. As you can see, our renovation will soon be completed.

How do you rate the Tesla competition?

Zipse: Tesla, starting from a low level, is recording large growth rates and is gaining market share. That is an impressive entrepreneurial achievement. At the same time, Tesla boss Elon Musk is building a car factory in Germany because it is here that he wants to benefit from the strength and competence of our automotive location. Cars are extremely complex products. To do this, you need highly qualified employees, whom he can find in this country. In Germany we often forget how successful we are as a car manufacturer: In the premium segment, German manufacturers have a world market share of around 80 percent. We want to defend this leading position.

But can the German premium manufacturers defend their strong position even in the electric age against constantly improving competitors?

Zipse: We are now significantly increasing the number of electric cars: in the years 2021 to 2023, we will also build a quarter of a million more electric cars than originally planned. Our previous plans were anything but conservative. We already had ambitious growth plans and wanted to further expand our market position. Now we will even more than double our share of electrified vehicles in sales - from around eight percent this year to around 20 percent in 2023.

E-mobility also calls for a rethinking of language. What is the name of the hood of an electric car?

Zipse: front hood. And you can no longer open it because there are high-voltage systems underneath. And our customers shouldn't come into direct contact with them. That would be too dangerous. This is why you can fill the wiper water with the BMW iX through a nozzle from the outside under the BMW logo.

Are your ambitious electrical plans being slowed down by the slow expansion of the charging infrastructure?

Zipse: You are addressing a very central challenge. Just one example: In Germany, around seven to ten million electrified vehicles will be on the road in 2030. Because every car has to be charged, a total of around eight to eleven million charging points would be needed - one million of them public. Starting today, 15,000 private and around 1,300 public charging points would have to be put into operation every week for this size. Unfortunately, we are far from that. So my biggest concern is, in fact, that our electric car offensive is being slowed down by the inadequate expansion of the charging infrastructure. Therefore, the next big community action in Europe must be to expand the charging infrastructure.

But Corona will remain at the center of European politics for a long time . How do the acts crisis at BMW from? Is the company suffering from the second lockdown?

Zipse: First of all, the high number of deaths affects me very much. And I very much hope that with the availability of vaccines the situation will ease up a bit. But we will have to continue to live with the virus and at BMW we have found ways in the past nine months how we as a company can deal with the pandemic. We have almost no infections in our factories and offices. Wherever possible, employees go to the home office. At the same time, BMW never stood still completely. We never shut the company down completely, even during the initial lockdown. Development continued and we also manufactured components for China, where production was already looking up again.

How do you feel about the home office?

Zipse: The employees who do not have a permanently assigned workplace, such as in production, can also work with us on the move. We have a lot of individual solutions. In terms of IT capacities, more than 70,000 employees could work from home at the same time. Therefore, there is no need for a legal claim. When the schools are closed, they must of course give employees the opportunity to work from home. But anyone who lives alone or doesn't have a suitable workplace at home and prefers to come to the office should be able to do that too.

What are the pitfalls of the home office?

Zipse: With many forms of innovative and creative work, the limits of the home office become apparent at some point. A company does not notice this immediately, but in two to three years if the company lacks innovative strength. Home office naturally works for purely administrative tasks and team meetings. In creative work, where people have to discuss things together and be spontaneous, home office doesn't work really well over the long term. And in this context I also have a clear stance on the role of management.

And what would it be?

Zipse: The main topic for managers is to solve conflicts that exist, for example, between customer demands and cost constraints or between political demands and business models. And of course other conflicting goals in a company also have to be resolved. Something like this only works to a limited extent virtually. My closest team and I therefore want to be directly approachable. In order to be able to guarantee this, we strictly adhere to the rules on infection protection.

Do you feel politically in good hands in times of Corona?

Zipse: The cooperation between politics and all areas of society works very well. I have never had so much contact with political officials as during this time. It's a very constructive cooperation. Everyone is convinced that we have to do it together. Politics and business have moved closer together. And that's good.

How did BMW cope with the crisis year 2020?

Zipse: After temporarily red figures in the second quarter, we are now back in positive territory. Our business model worked even during the crisis. Of course, we also had to increase efficiency and have adjusted the number of employees slightly. In the first nine months, around 2000 of a total of 126,000 jobs were lost through natural fluctuation, for example through the retirement of employees or severance payments. We acted with a sense of proportion and by mutual agreement with the employee representatives.

Are you sticking to the high number of apprenticeships?

Zipse: Yes, we hired around 1200 apprentices this year and will do so next year as well. The future viability of BMW remains unchanged. We have a very low fluctuation rate at BMW. Those who start with us often stay for their entire working life.

Some BMW fans are, as their comments on social media show, appalled by the huge BMW kidney grille that adorns the front of new models. What is to be made of the new Munich opulence?

Zipse (laughs):BMW history shows that our kidney has always evolved. In the 1950s, for example, it was very vertical. Then it became smaller and flatter again. It's good that our kidneys are on the move. Because the kidney is a symbol of BMW. We are happy when people write about the BMW kidneys. The worst thing would be if no one noticed that something was happening at BMW. The new kidney is an eye-catcher that you have to get used to, because it's also about BMW's design language for the future. By the way, we're getting a lot of encouragement for this new design language.

About the person: Oliver Zipse, 56, has been CEO of BMW AG since 2019.

Last edited by BMWGirlFL; 12-28-2020 at 10:49 PM..
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