The current billion-dollar profits come exclusively from the combustion engine business.
(Photo: Reuters)
The maneuver was a success: The first green bonds from Daimler were well received by the capital market. The Stuttgart-based company obtained two billion euros from its investors via green bonds, at lower interest rates than the previous bonds.
Mercedes is using it to finance the development of electric cars and fuel cells. At the end of the decade, these will have to be used by the majority of new cars. This is the only way for Mercedes to meet the climate targets in the EU and to stay in business.
Daimler has to turn both its drives and its financing. Electric cars are still exotic in the model range. And two billion euros in green bonds are just a delicate plant. Finally, Daimler pushes liabilities of almost 150 billion euros through the balance sheet. This is how the group finances its investments, but also its customers’ leasing fleets.
This shows that the transformation of the automotive industry will also be decided on the capital market. It is no longer sales figures and disgraceful return figures that are valued by investors, but rather the ability to change. Only those who manage to show their investors a credible plan to decarbonise the range of models will still get money in the future.
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And the German auto industry still has a long way to go here. The current billion-dollar profits from Daimler, Volkswagen and BMW come exclusively from the combustion engine business. But they have an expiration date: they’ll still sell for ten, maybe fifteen years. Refinancing a leased diesel on the capital market is likely to become more and more difficult for Daimler and Co. in the future.
With the successful issue, Daimler took its first step, but nothing more. In the future, electric cars not only have to be sold profitably, they also have to be produced in a sustainable way.
Car makers also have to implement big announcements
Because with the switch to electric drives, the discussion about the use of resources follows. The energy and material consumption of an electric car today is far too high to really be called environmentally friendly. In the end, only consistent recycling of raw materials will ensure that the auto industry retains its public acceptance and receives money from investors.
In terms of communication, this has already arrived in the auto industry. At the IAA mobility fair in Munich, the companies made big announcements about how quickly their own business should be converted to sustainability. The question remains whether these will actually be implemented. Only with a few green projects will donors not allow themselves to be fobbed off. Because without change, the auto industry has no future.
More: “We have tailwind on the capital market” – Daimler ensnares investors with green bonds