IAA Motor Show: Germany's car manufacturers are struggling
Reading time: 5 min.
|The mood at the IAA auto show is strange: The traditional German brands are putting in a lot of effort, but they're failing to gain any real momentum. Their new rivals from China currently have that momentum. Now they just need to get it on the road.
It's like a curse: When everyone's watching you, things just don't work out. The Mercedes boss is no different than the average citizen. It's Tuesday, the grand opening of the IAA auto show, and Ola Källenius is welcoming Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) and the assembled automotive press at the Mercedes booth. The focus: the new GLC, the company's great hope . And because it's now fully electric, there's room for a kind of second trunk where a combustion engine used to be. Car people call such a compartment a frunk , and Källenius is determined to show it to the Chancellor. But the stupid hatch simply refuses to open, even though Källenius is becoming increasingly nervous. "Demonstration effect," groans the top manager. "You just have to believe me."
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