Langenbrinck: “To relaunch the electric car in Italy, shared solutions are needed”

MILAN – The car market has been in turmoil for several years. Certainties that seemed stainless have been swept away in a very short time and essentially handed us a future to be rewritten according to new rules: technical and commercial. To make this leap, you need the ability to interpret and a solid technological foundation. It is a real revolution that must deal with an increasingly crowded and disorienting market. The recent 1000Miglia is undoubtedly an event that puts these differences on the table: on the one hand the cars of yesteryear that fascinate everyone, on the other the cars used to assist competitors that are increasingly silent and comfortable BEVs. Having the past and the future side by side seemed like the right opportunity to talk about the future with the person who represents the brand that invented the automobile in our country: Marc Langenbrinck, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Italia

Mr President, the first question obviously refers to the market and its performance.

“I certainly can’t complain. In Italy, the Mercedes-Benz market is in good health. Orders are growing and so are deliveries. The success is certainly linked to our products, which have always been at the highest levels. At this stage, I must admit that the dealers have done and are doing a fantastic job. It’s not easy to be at the top when you work in a world full of pitfalls and uncertainties and with rightly fierce competition. It therefore becomes important to have a range of products that is always up to date and always in line with the tradition of the brand. This doesn’t mean being static, but interpreting and updating the spirit that animates it every day.”

You speak of a market full of uncertainties and almost seem to evoke the dualism between thermal and electric engines. How do you see this transition phase?

“The car industry has chosen to follow the electric path, identifying it as the most realistic and practicable solution to achieve neutrality in CO2 emissions. In Italy, unlike what happens in other countries, the share of this market - and I am referring to both pure electric and hybrid - is still low. I believe that the time has come to ask ourselves why this is happening and to look for shared solutions that can help people understand that this is the path to take, given that at the moment there are no other viable ones. We need to talk and think about integrated mobility. These are issues that must see the interest and very broad involvement of all the players in play. A very broad work must be done that involves the government, economic protagonists, consumers. The desire and the need is to convince everyone that this is the path to follow.

I don't think the goal has already been achieved precisely because there are problems related to the economy and the spread of charging points to be able to direct ourselves without further doubts or second thoughts towards this which in some ways also appears as a possible dream, but also a necessity for the environment in which we live".

From this point of view, it seems that Italy has not yet managed to obtain results like other countries in Northern Europe, for example.

“That's true, but don't forget that Italy is historically a country passionate about cars. Look at how much attention events that have the car at their core can attract. I don't see why there aren't reasons why people aren't passionate about electric cars. Anyone who has driven electric cars has immediately appreciated them. I understand that there is a bit of mistrust towards innovations, especially if they are radical like electric mobility. You can't help but appreciate the availability of torque and acceleration when you're behind the wheel of an electric car, just as you can't help but notice the almost absolute silence that surrounds us and therefore the great comfort for passengers. And what's more, you don't damage the environment, which is a fundamental aspect for the future of man on earth”.

There are some however, at the moment there is a lack of an overall vision

“We must continue along this path, it is inevitable. All the actors involved in this change must sit down and think together. The aim is to find a common path to follow, which is conducive to better mobility in Italy. In many other countries this path has already been followed. We could choose the ten solutions that we consider most interesting, best for us, most viable and work on these. Politics, car industry, energy industry, transport industry. The time has come to identify together the path to follow. In other countries this thing has already been done. We could identify the best things done elsewhere and try to read them in a more Italian way, making them our own”.