Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. I'm Matt Miller and
Speaker 1: I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is Hot Pursuit.
Speaker 2: All right, we have a jam packed show today.
Speaker 1: Jam packed.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk to the North American CEO of
Speaker 2: Mercedes Benz for the USA.
Speaker 1: CEO in BUSA Dimitri Silakis, who is a wonderful leader.
Speaker 1: He's been with the company since wow, for thirty three years,
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, and in the current his current spot
Speaker 1: since twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: That's like as long as Jesus was alive.
Speaker 1: Is golden age, you know, and they recently just last
Speaker 1: night announced that he will be leaving the position. So
Speaker 1: we get him at a really good time.
Speaker 2: True, but he wasn't talking any smack about Mercedes Benz.
Speaker 1: No, he seemed to be loyal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's loved Mercedes since he was four. As we'll find.
Speaker 1: Out that kind of It's weird when you think about
Speaker 1: all these influences when you're super young and they do
Speaker 1: come back. Yeah, you know, it's it's for sure accident.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember when I first saw like a Portia nine
Speaker 2: to eleven and understood how cool it was. I think
Speaker 2: I was about nine, so I wasn't that young.
Speaker 1: What about the first time you saw a G Wagon.
Speaker 1: Let's get serious.
Speaker 2: I was a teenager, Okay, I was a teenager in
Speaker 2: the US. You were in the US. My one of
Speaker 2: my neighbors two houses down showed up in his dad's
Speaker 2: I think it was a two thirty. Does that make
Speaker 2: any sense? Yeah, it was a It was it was
Speaker 2: like a military cool vehicle. And I thought that thing
Speaker 2: is so cool, and I asked him. I peppered in
Speaker 2: with questions and it was only on our street for
Speaker 2: a week because he was borrowing it from his dad.
Speaker 2: But that's cool, Yeah, very very cool. I mean that's
Speaker 2: These are the iconic shapes of the automotive industry. Nine
Speaker 2: to eleven g Wagon and a Mustang. When I was
Speaker 2: a little, little, little kid, my dad had a Mustang.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, for how much we talk about corvettes, I'm
Speaker 1: surprised that actually you are imprinted with a Mustang.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I've never been a Corvette guy until the
Speaker 2: C seven was the first one that I really got into.
Speaker 1: Interesting.
Speaker 2: So, anyway, I wanted to go through a list of
Speaker 2: I wanted to go through a few of the emails
Speaker 2: that we've been getting. Oh please, recently, so please log
Speaker 2: onto your Bloomberg terminal because I am locked out of
Speaker 2: my messages.
Speaker 1: I'll try to log on it for not doing my
Speaker 1: silist because I've lost a contact, so I'll try to
Speaker 1: squint and see my way through.
Speaker 2: The main thing was not a car thing that I
Speaker 2: wanted to talk about. It was a denim thing.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I remember that email.
Speaker 2: We were talking about how a lot of the sort
Speaker 2: of Americana in terms of clothing, the best stuff is
Speaker 2: out of Japan. And I may have been propagating a
Speaker 2: rumor or a myth that I have heard for years
Speaker 2: and years, which is that the original denim manufacturers like
Speaker 2: Levi's and Cone Mills or whatever, they gave all of
Speaker 2: their looms to Japan after the Second World War because
Speaker 2: they had found more sort of cost efficient ways to
Speaker 2: produce cheaper jeans, and that's why the Japanese are the
Speaker 2: ones that make the best heavy you know, unsanfordized or
Speaker 2: whatever means denim. And we got a message from a
Speaker 2: guy who is like, YO, love your podcast. Dean said,
Speaker 2: I am into cars and bikes and stuff, but I'm
Speaker 2: mailing you about this myth. You're totally wrong. That didn't
Speaker 2: happen that way.
Speaker 1: Well he said it maybe he said it appears this
Speaker 1: maybe a myth. Yeah, well he's he's not saying. It's
Speaker 1: attached if.
Speaker 2: You scroll down, he attached all of the Ai conversation,
Speaker 2: which I think is absolutely fascinating, even more interesting maybe
Speaker 2: than than the myth.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm already taking uh take umbradge with guest taking
Speaker 1: umbrage because I just happened to be at the Levi's
Speaker 1: HQ ground zero in Los Angeles about two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: where they were personally talking about how they don't have
Speaker 1: access to looms and they had lost the looms because
Speaker 1: all of the great looms went to Japan. And this
Speaker 1: is Levi employees, you know, high up in the company.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting. I mean, it doesn't really matter, but
Speaker 2: this guy says the American draper looms were not actually
Speaker 2: sent to you know, Tokyo, and that they used Toyota
Speaker 2: looms and the only reason that their genes are better
Speaker 2: is because they continue to use these old men manufacturing
Speaker 2: processes and they actually care.
Speaker 1: Because I'm in New York City and I'm traveling with
Speaker 1: my husband because we're taking a few extra days in
Speaker 1: the city. He is sitting in on this podcast because
Speaker 1: he loves the show, and Magnus Magnus, this is my husband.
Speaker 1: He has quite a background in textiles and retail and design.
Speaker 2: That's where you made your name. Initially we've had him
Speaker 2: on the show, so people who right, I'm.
Speaker 1: Trying to set up his bona fides here.
Speaker 4: So I'm no denim expert. But how I got into
Speaker 4: fashion was selling second nd clothing, mostly Levi five oh
Speaker 4: ones on the Borderwalk in Venice Beach in the late
Speaker 4: eighties and early nineties. And back then the whole rage
Speaker 4: was what was called redline salvage five ozho ones and bigies.
Speaker 4: And the way I know the story is Cone Mills
Speaker 4: was the manufacturer of the denim supplied mostly to Levi's,
Speaker 4: and back then the denim was woven on a narrow
Speaker 4: loom that produced a salvage down the seam of the denim,
Speaker 4: and that was known as the redline that was in
Speaker 4: the side seam of the genes. Later on, it appeared
Speaker 4: that Cone Mills started manufacturing a wider width of denim,
Speaker 4: which required a wider loom, so those original machines that
Speaker 4: wove the denim were dismantled and sold to overseas manufacturers,
Speaker 4: mostly in Japan. And that's why the Japanese are still
Speaker 4: producing what's known as salvage denim on these original mostly
Speaker 4: cone mills machines which are now set up in Japan.
Speaker 4: Denim is still produced in the States, but it's on
Speaker 4: a wider width fabric on a different mill or machine,
Speaker 4: and it doesn't have that salvaged edge, and that salvage
Speaker 4: edge is basically not overlocked down the side seam. And
Speaker 4: that's how you know it's salvage denim. That's the story
Speaker 4: of the way I.
Speaker 2: Know new stuff is like it's not slubby, it doesn't
Speaker 2: have as much texture, it's not as heavy.
Speaker 4: Right, I mean a lot of the Japanese denim that
Speaker 4: you see is fourteen sixteen, eighteen twenty ounce almost feels
Speaker 4: like cardboard.
Speaker 2: These are twenty five.
Speaker 4: Well, that's real, real heavy weight. So you gotta break
Speaker 4: him in, you know, it's a real badge of honor
Speaker 4: to break in that hard denim. And that's rigid denim.
Speaker 4: There's no stretch in it like a lot of denim.
Speaker 4: Now that stretch two way, four way stretch might be
Speaker 4: ninety eight percent cotton, two percent likely to give it stretch.
Speaker 4: What you're wearing. The heavyweight twenty five ounce is one
Speaker 4: hundred percent cotton.
Speaker 2: I assume different ways. I don't wear lycra. There is
Speaker 2: no situation in which.
Speaker 1: I'm wearing God, this is the biggest challenge I have
Speaker 1: with living in Los Angeles. Let's just be honest. The
Speaker 1: culture of lycra as an option for being in public
Speaker 1: period after seven am, if you're outside of a workout class,
Speaker 1: is too prevalent. It's really a shame on societ. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's the problem with the world. And I would also say,
Speaker 1: now this is not a comment specifically to Dean, who
Speaker 1: was so nice to email us, but I would say
Speaker 1: that just because an AI summary has some information after
Speaker 1: you google it doesn't necessarily make it.
Speaker 2: True, true, fair, We're going to get to the bottom.
Speaker 1: That would not cross a reporting standard, a standard of reporter.
Speaker 2: I just I found Dean trustworthy. I think he said
Speaker 2: he had g body nine to eleven.
Speaker 1: And that definitely means he's a good person.
Speaker 2: Like Corbet. You know, he has some good cars too,
Speaker 2: good tasting cout By the way, he also, I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure he's also the one who pointed out there's another
Speaker 2: reason that we don't like tinted windows. You know, we
Speaker 2: were talking about how I hate it when people totally tint.
Speaker 2: I just yeah, and he says, you know, as a
Speaker 2: motorcycle rider, it's also a problem because when you pull up,
Speaker 2: for example, to an intersection, you want to be able
Speaker 2: to see the driver, so you can tell if the
Speaker 2: driver sees you. So it's very important. There are other
Speaker 2: reasons that we don't like tint By the way, since
Speaker 2: we have Magnus here anyway, can I please ask okay,
Speaker 2: I want to ask about this Batista hypercar that whenever
Speaker 2: I see pictures of your pad. And I haven't been
Speaker 2: to La to your house, but I do want to
Speaker 2: go sometime.
Speaker 1: You can welcome out of host. We don't let anybody
Speaker 1: whenever I.
Speaker 2: See pictures of your place. There's recently been this hypercar there.
Speaker 2: I know it's an electric hypercar just sitting in It's
Speaker 2: like what in your loft, right.
Speaker 4: It's like a paper weiste what I call opp other
Speaker 4: people's piniferina.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so but you're it's there, I guess because you
Speaker 2: have just recently done a collaboration with Pininferina. Tell us
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 4: Well, the bike store, is you know Automobilia Pinniferina, based
Speaker 4: out of Terine, Italy, the ninety five year old world
Speaker 4: renowned Italian design house, just needed a place to stole
Speaker 4: that car. That car is a life sign resin design
Speaker 4: study model. That was the wind test model that debuted
Speaker 4: at the Geneva Autos show in twenty eighteen. It's not
Speaker 4: an actual running driving car. It's way more unique than that.
Speaker 4: There's only two of them in the world. So I
Speaker 4: did him a favor, stored the car, and then a
Speaker 4: couple of weeks later they said, hey, would you be
Speaker 4: interested in collaborating with us on a one to one
Speaker 4: livery both interior and exterior for this nineteen hundred horsepower
Speaker 4: all electric Automobilia Pinaferina Bautista. And so we debuted. The
Speaker 4: global debut was yesterday where we showed the world that
Speaker 4: I sort of what I've been working on for the
Speaker 4: past year or so.
Speaker 2: So this livery is, I mean, I love your style,
Speaker 2: but it's usually I can tell that you've done it
Speaker 2: yourself right, and this looks so polished and like I
Speaker 2: expect someone from design school to have made this, and
Speaker 2: there's some you know, philosophy behind it and a computer generator.
Speaker 4: Oh it's not what I mean, right, Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I'm taking that as a compliment.
Speaker 2: I mean, I.
Speaker 4: Mean the way I designed this car literally was quite
Speaker 4: a lot of what I like to call thirty second
Speaker 4: quick doodle sketches, which is mostly how I always do everything.
Speaker 4: Most of the time, I don't even sketch truth be Told.
Speaker 4: And then this livery was an evolution of what I
Speaker 4: call a tape job, which was paper and vinyl tape
Speaker 4: laid over the car, sort of taken inspiration from an
Speaker 4: art car from Truth be Told. A lot of this
Speaker 4: strobe effect was from a seventies Tha Challenger mopar or
Speaker 4: no car or they have the strobe down the side.
Speaker 4: That was my first reference point, and then it sort
Speaker 4: of morphed into this barcode livery. But in my mind
Speaker 4: mentally was I'd always like that Tha Challenger Ararcuda that
Speaker 4: had a bold strobe down the side, So that was
Speaker 4: the original inspiration behind it, which I applied by hand.
Speaker 4: What you're looking at here is obviously a digital rendering
Speaker 4: of what I did by hand, and how I work
Speaker 4: was I'd mock up the tape on the car, then
Speaker 4: physically take photos on my phone right there, and I'd
Speaker 4: send them to the team in Turin and they would
Speaker 4: take that inspiration, and you know, some of it was
Speaker 4: a little too crazy for them, so some of it
Speaker 4: did get scaled back. But it's a project that I'm
Speaker 4: so honored to be a part of.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: For me, it's just a great opportunity to do something
Speaker 4: with the world's greatest design.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at a picture of I don't know why,
Speaker 2: it's on Yahoo Finance of Magnus laying tape stripes down
Speaker 2: the side of this hypercar, and I mean, did you
Speaker 2: take the picture, Hannah.
Speaker 1: No, No, that's a that's a professional photographer.
Speaker 2: So it's it's so cool. And this is only one
Speaker 2: of a kind vehicle, right.
Speaker 4: So it's one of one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who's buying it? Who gets it?
Speaker 4: We're gonna find out. Time will tell.
Speaker 2: Who's going to buy it?
Speaker 4: Will be one lokioner who's getting a piece of Pinaferina history.
Speaker 4: It's it's a drivable work of art. It's an art car,
Speaker 4: you know. For me, I always say the idea is
Speaker 4: the most important thing. And as I just shared, this
Speaker 4: idea was based on a few doodles, some tape drawings
Speaker 4: and a code Strobe Graphics, so we've got to find
Speaker 4: out pretty soon.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm also looking at pictures of you with David
Speaker 2: day Amantia.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Big Day.
Speaker 2: So the chief design Officer for pen and Farina, which
Speaker 2: that's a title like chief designa.
Speaker 4: He's a great guy. I mean, this was a pinche
Speaker 4: moment for me because I met Dave at Monterey Carweek
Speaker 4: where it just debuted another Pinaferina concept car, and he
Speaker 4: happened to be wearing my Nike two seven seven dunks
Speaker 4: and that was how we met.
Speaker 3: That was it.
Speaker 4: And then I test drover the actual running driving car,
Speaker 4: and then fell into this collaborative project purely by accident.
Speaker 4: So this stuff can't be scripted. There's no PR marketing
Speaker 4: team behind me pitching collaborations to people.
Speaker 2: It just evolved.
Speaker 4: And that's kind of organically how my life has been
Speaker 4: evolving over the past few years with these cool, mostly
Speaker 4: art based collaborations. And this is sort of the pinnacle
Speaker 4: of where I'm at to because it's a world renowned designer.
Speaker 2: Can I say, so, what I think of the interiors
Speaker 2: that you do? I always think of this blue tartan.
Speaker 2: I don't know why maybe in the documentary in the
Speaker 2: Urban Outlaw movie that there's some of that in there.
Speaker 2: But you've got essentially like a blue tartan on the
Speaker 2: interior of this as well. Tell us about the interior, Well.
Speaker 4: It's a throwback to my sort of fashion background and
Speaker 4: my sort of rebellious punk attitude, which has been there
Speaker 4: throughout my whole design career, whether it was on the
Speaker 4: Borderwalk in Venice or the Nike collab has the red
Speaker 4: and blue tart in the shoe, and it's bringing elements
Speaker 4: of my background, fibers of my fabric together. The thread
Speaker 4: that connects them together is the fashion and design element
Speaker 4: which is now incorporated in this one of one Bautista
Speaker 4: on the interior. So it's becoming a little bit of
Speaker 4: a signature touch this rock and roll thing. And the
Speaker 4: joke here with the Pinaferena Bautista is I'm becoming the
Speaker 4: gentleman outlaw. This is obviously a lot more refined in
Speaker 4: the sense of, you know, the level of execution for
Speaker 4: me as being elevated. I had to up my game,
Speaker 4: you know. I always say nothing needs to be perfect,
Speaker 4: which it doesn't. I don't overthink things, but I definitely
Speaker 4: had to elevate the execution level with Pinaferina, which is
Speaker 4: a good thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because this is I mean, it's an electric hypercar.
Speaker 2: This is like perfect right, that's the point of this engineering.
Speaker 2: And I wonder, just finally, what do you think about
Speaker 2: driving this? Have you driven it? I?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean how this whole project came together was
Speaker 4: literally over a couple of drinks after I'd driven the
Speaker 4: actual car probably eighteen months ago, faster than it I
Speaker 4: ever gone on my favorite road. And it was the
Speaker 4: ability of this nineteen hundred horsepower car to put the
Speaker 4: power down and not lose traction, and then the grip,
Speaker 4: the suspension, the brakes, the turn in. It was a
Speaker 4: whole package, you know. So I like speed. Speed comes
Speaker 4: in a lot of different forms, whether it's you know,
Speaker 4: makes a lot of noise or doesn't make a lot
Speaker 4: of noise. You know, these things are deceptively fast because
Speaker 4: you don't hear the big engine roaring. You hear the
Speaker 4: tires squealing and suspension creaking and carbon flexing on all
Speaker 4: those emotions. So it's recalibrating your mind around. For me,
Speaker 4: I don't put speed and sound together necessarily in the
Speaker 4: same sentences I used to. It doesn't have to be
Speaker 4: loud to be fast. Sure, loud's exciting, intoxicating, it engages
Speaker 4: the senses. I get it. But speed comes in a
Speaker 4: lot of different packages, and this is just one variety
Speaker 4: of speed.
Speaker 2: All right, dude, thank you so much for jumping in there.
Speaker 2: So and Dean, thank you for the email.
Speaker 1: Yes, thanks, Please keep writing tell us if you still
Speaker 1: think we're wrong.
Speaker 2: We got a bunch of good emails. We don't have
Speaker 2: to go to all of them, but I know one
Speaker 2: of them was about Mercedes. So someone was asking about
Speaker 2: the Glees and the g LA which a while, those
Speaker 2: aren't the cars that you drove in roam. You drove
Speaker 2: the CLA, that's right, and not the cars that I love.
Speaker 2: I love the c l E. We do have the
Speaker 2: perfect guest for Victor on today.
Speaker 1: Yes we do. Thanks for writing, Victor. Let's talk to Dmitri.
Speaker 2: Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: So big treat for us today to have Dmitri solacis
Speaker 1: the President and CEO of Mercedes Ben's United States of
Speaker 1: America here with us, live and living color in the studio.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be here physically as well.
Speaker 2: I'm excited too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's a great day for all of us.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: I'm happy to be with you guys here, very happy.
Speaker 1: And this is on the eve of a big grand
Speaker 1: opening of your new dealership, not a new location, but
Speaker 1: a new dealership in Manhattan. Can you just tell it,
Speaker 1: walk us through everything that you guys have done on
Speaker 1: the new space and why it's such a big deal
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: As you said, it's not a new location, but it's
Speaker 3: a totally new store. So going back to history, it's
Speaker 3: what in Manhattan since over seventy years and in this
Speaker 3: look is this is.
Speaker 1: Your oldest your oldest location in the US.
Speaker 3: It's one of the oldest locations in the US and
Speaker 3: a very traditional one. But you have not always been
Speaker 3: at the same location, so there since twenty eleven. And
Speaker 3: now we're doing, or have done, basically in a very
Speaker 3: short period of time, a full renovation based on the
Speaker 3: new standards of Mosses Bends and we're adding a couple
Speaker 3: of more things to this space. We have the first
Speaker 3: top end vehicle lounge and my BA Lounge, which is
Speaker 3: our top brand. I would say, we have an extended
Speaker 3: space and MG Performance Center as we call it. And
Speaker 3: we have a beautiful new boutique also with a collaboration, yes,
Speaker 3: exactly exactly a cafe, and we have also collaborated with IWC.
Speaker 3: So it's a space where it's not only more more
Speaker 3: digital than it used to be, but it's modern, it's
Speaker 3: more i would say warm, and it's more a place
Speaker 3: that you can not only get into buy car or
Speaker 3: to service you vehicle, but you can spend you can
Speaker 3: spend time around. It's a lifestyle place.
Speaker 1: This sounds great because I feel like people hate having
Speaker 1: to go to the car dealership in general. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not thought of as a fun thing to have
Speaker 1: to go to the car dealership. But this place actually
Speaker 1: sounds really really nice, like I might want to be there.
Speaker 3: We call it the destination, right, So it's not only
Speaker 3: to go shopping, but you can spend some time there.
Speaker 3: You can stroll around. You can see some classic cars,
Speaker 3: vintage cars, I'm see this, you can see some modern cars,
Speaker 3: some sports cars. And if you end up buying a vehicle, yeah,
Speaker 3: we've got to be good, but it's not cannot be
Speaker 3: the reason of visiting the place.
Speaker 2: I totally understand what you mean. Yeah, except I love
Speaker 2: going to.
Speaker 1: Car do you also like going to the dentist? Are
Speaker 1: you one of those?
Speaker 2: I mean, I make an appoyment every three.
Speaker 1: Months, Well, your teeth look good.
Speaker 2: But so I wonder do more people buy cars now online?
Speaker 2: Or does everybody who actually buys a car, since they're
Speaker 2: plopping down so many time of thousands of dollars, does
Speaker 2: everybody go to the dealership for that experiences?
Speaker 3: It's a mix. You have still the traditional customers which
Speaker 3: would like to go in the store, be treated by
Speaker 3: the sales consultants, leave the whole experience, as you say,
Speaker 3: kick tires right, drive the vehicle with a lot of money,
Speaker 3: choose it and walk out with a new car. But
Speaker 3: you have also the ones which trust a brand, trust
Speaker 3: a store, trust a sales consultant, and they go fully
Speaker 3: online and they can complete.
Speaker 2: So what's the percentage of Mercedes buyers that go fully
Speaker 2: online or you know, via telephone, who actually don't ever
Speaker 2: enter a dealership until they maybe take.
Speaker 3: I would say on average about ten percent of our
Speaker 3: sales are fully online what we call from start to finish,
Speaker 3: and then they might come and have the delivered of
Speaker 3: the vehicle done in the showroom, because that's a process
Speaker 3: that's a nice moment, right, it's a it's a one moment,
Speaker 3: or they get delivered the vehicle in the driveway, which
Speaker 3: you also offer.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about my Back. You mentioned the special
Speaker 1: my Bak attilie for lack of a better word. Can
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about what that offers
Speaker 1: these high net worth individuals and why we may aspire
Speaker 1: at one point to be there ourselves.
Speaker 3: I would like you to be out on my Back.
Speaker 3: It's our top and vehicle or top end brand. It's
Speaker 3: actually super luxury part of our brand. So we offer
Speaker 3: these my Bak versions of additions for the S class,
Speaker 3: for the electric, for the EQS SUV's it's a design,
Speaker 3: it's the equipment, it's the comfort, it's a convenience that
Speaker 3: the vehicle is offering. And as I said earlier, we
Speaker 3: have now in Manhattan the first my BA Laud. So
Speaker 3: it's an exclusive space with all the samples and colors,
Speaker 3: and you can also individualize your product with the program
Speaker 3: that call manufacturer and even a step up manufacturer made
Speaker 3: to custom.
Speaker 1: So you could do that in many sto you can.
Speaker 3: Do the studio right in the launch, so you can
Speaker 3: choose out of a very exclusive colors, very exclusive interior
Speaker 3: leather streams, stitching hoods, so you can basically say you
Speaker 3: can make a vehicle which does not look like any
Speaker 3: other else, any other in the market, or even we
Speaker 3: go to this UH made special where you can do
Speaker 3: and you can stitch, and you can choose a color
Speaker 3: which is not it's not even in the range of
Speaker 3: our standard colors. So these are programs which are offered
Speaker 3: at NB Manhattan.
Speaker 2: So when when I last had all a colonials on
Speaker 2: my television show, it was a while back, and I
Speaker 2: feel like we were coming out of COVID and he
Speaker 2: was talking about a shift towards just full on luxury
Speaker 2: because supply chains were limited, right, and they had the
Speaker 2: best margins on those obviously top end cars. And I'm
Speaker 2: not sure how closely they held to that strategy. You
Speaker 2: held to that strategy throughout the last few years. But
Speaker 2: now that we're facing tariffs, does it mean a total
Speaker 2: return to focus on high margin vehicles because cheaper cars
Speaker 2: are just not going to be as profitable if you're
Speaker 2: looking at a twenty five percent tariff to get.
Speaker 3: It in here, I think we try to be in
Speaker 3: different segments. Definitely, the top end vehicle segment were dominating
Speaker 3: with brands like my bach AMGS a sports brand with
Speaker 3: the G class and these are big, big volume. Oar
Speaker 3: Us is the number one market, but that does not
Speaker 3: mean we move or a step away from different and
Speaker 3: other segments where there is more volume opportunity and obviously
Speaker 3: compete with other brands. During the pandemic. What you said
Speaker 3: earlier there was there was. There were different reasons which
Speaker 3: also made the vehicles. We had a micro chip challenge,
Speaker 3: so we could choose which vehicles we would first place
Speaker 3: our the micro chips and what to produce.
Speaker 2: Class and S class first as as possible.
Speaker 1: Right that was I would not argue with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was an opportunity obviously, but today you're looking
Speaker 3: to all segments and on the tiff topics, it's creating
Speaker 3: obviously a big upset in the market. Still, the situation
Speaker 3: is not very clear how to end up. But our
Speaker 3: approach is to be us close to the market as possible,
Speaker 3: a just our prices and keep our customers loyal to
Speaker 3: the brand and offer to them our products. I think
Speaker 3: we're in a good shape. Who have just shot a
Speaker 3: couple of weeks back that we maintain our model here
Speaker 3: twenty five pricing at the current MSRP level, So you.
Speaker 1: Won't you won't be passing on any.
Speaker 3: No until further notes, until until any other major change happens.
Speaker 3: So I think that gives sustetnt quiality yes in the
Speaker 3: market and yeah, go on by Yes. So I'll always
Speaker 3: try to be adjusting to market conditions and keeping out
Speaker 3: our clients as happy and as satisfied as possible.
Speaker 1: You know, I joined you guys in Rome a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago for the CLA debut, which is so exciting.
Speaker 1: What's the future of a car like that potentially in
Speaker 1: the US which isn't as high end, but it's obviously
Speaker 1: a very special car and the most really advanced Mercedes
Speaker 1: I've seen when it comes to technology. What's the future
Speaker 1: of that in the US.
Speaker 3: So, Hannah, you're privileged in being in Rome, right right
Speaker 3: and at the same time seeing the CLA. So tomorrow's
Speaker 3: our US North American debut of the CLA and we
Speaker 3: call it our smartest car ever. So it's not only
Speaker 3: the beautiful designs the space, but it's more the technology
Speaker 3: that this vehicle is bringing. So yeah, in the US,
Speaker 3: maybe Sedance and these entry models are not the ones
Speaker 3: which have the biggest volume for us, but as a
Speaker 3: technology better and as the vehicle which brings us into
Speaker 3: a new era of electric vehicles, of ice vehicles with
Speaker 3: this super technology call it a computer and wheels. Right,
Speaker 3: It's very important for us. So we're very happy to
Speaker 3: have it here, very happy to showcase it for the
Speaker 3: first time in New York at our new store in Manhattan,
Speaker 3: which has, as we discussed earlier, lots of also digital
Speaker 3: elements and lots of technology in the showroom. So happy,
Speaker 3: and we plan to bring it in the market at
Speaker 3: the end of the year. And it's again it is
Speaker 3: one of a series of products which would come in
Speaker 3: the future.
Speaker 1: Is that a car you could ever produce in the US?
Speaker 3: This is a difficult discussion and situation because always you
Speaker 3: produce vehicles which make sense in terms of volume and
Speaker 3: in terms of what the market needs. So I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's that lots of.
Speaker 2: Car that Americans necessarily are going to be buying in.
Speaker 2: I mean, Americans like big trucks, right, we like suv.
Speaker 1: My point on that was really you you actually manufacture
Speaker 1: quite a few vehicles in the US already. If we're
Speaker 1: dealing with tariffs, maybe you would move production of some
Speaker 1: of some more vehicles to the US. Would that help
Speaker 1: alleviate some of the stressors?
Speaker 3: Well, looking to all opportunities, as you said, are well
Speaker 3: rooted in the US since decades, not only with passenger cars,
Speaker 3: I mean the the GLE SUV and Coop the GLS,
Speaker 3: the two electrics the equi as UV in the equs's
Speaker 3: UV are produced in the in the US and l
Speaker 3: Factor in Alabama, but also the commercial vehicles. Our sprinter
Speaker 3: van is produced in South Carolina. So we're well rooted. Obviously,
Speaker 3: we're looking two opportunities and we're we're convinced and will
Speaker 3: continue investing in the in the country. Now which product
Speaker 3: and which model is to be seen, but has to
Speaker 3: do with what the market likes. Right, as you said,
Speaker 3: I think US is more and as UV in a
Speaker 3: truck market.
Speaker 2: But it's a good question. I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people are wondering how much will tariffs incentivize a big
Speaker 2: industrial business like Mercedes Benz to move production. I mean,
Speaker 2: isn't it expensive to move production? And you know this
Speaker 2: administration is only going to last another you know, three
Speaker 2: and a half years, So do you make a decision
Speaker 2: like that, how long does it take? For example, if
Speaker 2: you want to build a new factory in America, would
Speaker 2: it be done before Trump is out of office?
Speaker 3: It is? I mean, you have a factory first of all,
Speaker 3: or have two factories right in the there we have capacity,
Speaker 3: which we have decided what makes sense. But these decisions
Speaker 3: you said take take time to be taken and have
Speaker 3: a long it should be long lasting. I mean, we
Speaker 3: started with our factory in Alabama in the mid mid
Speaker 3: nineties and you.
Speaker 1: Have a long, long time ago.
Speaker 3: Now, yeah, so we come in to stay, we invest
Speaker 3: to stay. So we're evaluating now the situation of the conditions.
Speaker 3: But we're determined to have more vehicles produced in the
Speaker 3: US for the US, hopefully our.
Speaker 1: Products, hopefully not the g Wagon. Now, I mean that
Speaker 1: is that's that's a unique. That's a unique. But to
Speaker 1: Matt's point, that is a big truck like vehicle that
Speaker 1: I think is sold probably the most in the US.
Speaker 1: I think probably Beverly Hills because I see them every
Speaker 1: other car in Beverly Hills.
Speaker 2: Plus Magnus Styre actually makes that. I mean, you don't
Speaker 2: even produce that.
Speaker 1: You're right, that's when saying like that, would that would
Speaker 1: make sense for me to try to move production to
Speaker 1: the US, but you can't. It's it's Austria. You know,
Speaker 1: this is such an.
Speaker 3: Icon, Yeah, exactly, an icon, such a history behind it.
Speaker 3: So not everything is easy, it's not. So it actually
Speaker 3: cannot cannot be shipped out of the worlds on the
Speaker 3: short notice. Yeah, that's certain precucis for that, but we're
Speaker 3: looking to that.
Speaker 2: If we're done talking about basically, yeah we can, we
Speaker 2: can pivot. Okay, so we've talked about the smile. I
Speaker 2: like to ask people, like what got you into cars?
Speaker 2: You weren't born as a Mercedes employee, right, So what
Speaker 2: were your first cars that you really loved? What What
Speaker 2: is the first car that you love that you actually
Speaker 2: could own yourself? Like what what was it for you?
Speaker 3: So, I mean, good people points. I have not studied
Speaker 3: automotive engineering. I studied medical electronic engineering and I started
Speaker 3: working in this field. But cars were always my hobby.
Speaker 3: And one of my colleagues triggered me a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks back, when did you first come across Mercedes? And
Speaker 3: I remember, and I went back to my photo album,
Speaker 3: you know, still printed black and white photos, and I
Speaker 3: found a photo of myself with four years and being
Speaker 3: on a small pedal car which was a Mercedes. Right,
Speaker 3: So that was my first encounter with Mercedes in Greece.
Speaker 3: I'm great. So that was back in Greece. So I
Speaker 3: always like cars. I always followed racing and developments of technology.
Speaker 3: And I switched thirty three years back from the medical
Speaker 3: electronics industry that was working at that time just to
Speaker 3: my hobby, which was automotive cars, and to Mercedes. The
Speaker 3: option was at the time Mercedes, but also there was
Speaker 3: a big dream, I mean big brands, very successful, long history,
Speaker 3: so it was for me a big achievement starting with Mercedes.
Speaker 3: And that's how my story started thirty three years ago.
Speaker 2: And what are you into? I mean, we love the
Speaker 2: g Wagon, I love the c l E.
Speaker 1: You know I love an sl to be honest. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean like all erasing.
Speaker 3: You live in California. Cour Sale was born, right, and
Speaker 3: it's the US the US product. Look always I'm asked
Speaker 3: what car do you drive? And as I'm spoiled because
Speaker 3: I can drive any car, any messides car, right, and
Speaker 3: I love but I would say for me an SUV
Speaker 3: which gives you versatility of driving everywhere of putting your
Speaker 3: life in bikes, dogs, whatever. I like you C is
Speaker 3: for me what what makes sense? But of course driving
Speaker 3: in the cell on a nice evening down on the
Speaker 3: pH is is.
Speaker 1: Kind of heaven. Exact really is kind of heaven. And
Speaker 1: it's the perfect car for the perfect road. But I
Speaker 1: like your answer that you're not trying to be you know,
Speaker 1: front or try to like say some fancy race car
Speaker 1: the C one eleven or you know, it's a very
Speaker 1: practical answer. Yeah, no, no, it's no, it's yeahs is.
Speaker 3: It means it's something which supports and basically fits you
Speaker 3: life too. Yeah. Back in Griz, I have an sl
Speaker 3: A full fifty of the early eighties, which is my
Speaker 3: classic car. Let's say what color, light blue, beautiful? I
Speaker 3: love it.
Speaker 1: Yes, and Dmitria, we know we just heard the news
Speaker 1: that you will be transitioning out of the role of
Speaker 1: top dog at Mercedes Benz USA. I'd love to just hear.
Speaker 1: I think you joined in twenty twenty in your current role, right,
Speaker 1: so five years can you just tell us, I don't know,
Speaker 1: looking back, what you've seen change in the auto industry
Speaker 1: and give us some wisdom.
Speaker 2: That well you will learn.
Speaker 1: I mean it's so much has changed.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So I say this was the most challenging and
Speaker 3: the most intense five years of my life or of
Speaker 3: my career. I mean, if you go back, i joined
Speaker 3: at the late twenty twenty and we're at the beginning
Speaker 3: of the pandemic, at the beginning of the supply crunch,
Speaker 3: which you lived and came and joined a company who
Speaker 3: were basically I mean, you've been into our headquarters in Atlanta,
Speaker 3: to a beautiful building, but with no life. I didn't
Speaker 3: know my colleagues, i didn't know who was around. Traveling
Speaker 3: was a challenge to our locations in the US, to
Speaker 3: the dealers or whatever. So it was a very challenging start.
Speaker 3: But I would say many things have changed since then.
Speaker 3: We're back into more digital were discussed earlier, right, who
Speaker 3: was buying a car online in twenty twenty, Right in
Speaker 3: today people do buy or at least get all the
Speaker 3: information online. So many things have changed. Many things have
Speaker 3: have moved into our industry, electric vehicles, plug in hybrids again,
Speaker 3: digital retailing, so very intense times, new products in the markets.
Speaker 3: I'm really glad of what I lived.
Speaker 1: How have you changed?
Speaker 3: I think that's a that's a great question. On one hand,
Speaker 3: that's nothing is given right. Things can change from one
Speaker 3: day to the other, and the faster you can adapt,
Speaker 3: the better, the better you are. So things and traditions
Speaker 3: do not apply. They help you maybe to make some considerations,
Speaker 3: but you cannot. There's no blueprint from one day to
Speaker 3: the other. So that's one thing. The second thing is
Speaker 3: that basically in all these challenges, what makes all the
Speaker 3: difference is the people that you have around you. And
Speaker 3: for me, people is my team. People is our dealers,
Speaker 3: which that the ones which are facing and serving the customers,
Speaker 3: which for them was also a difficult time, right, all
Speaker 3: of what was going on and changing. So people no
Speaker 3: blueprints and being fast, trying things out, failing quickly adjusting
Speaker 3: and moving forwards. That's I think. What's I learned or
Speaker 3: lived in the last five years?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 2: What about America? What do you think about being here?
Speaker 3: I think it's it's a great country with a big momentum.
Speaker 2: Are you going to stay here where we're going to
Speaker 2: go next?
Speaker 3: Yes, I'm looking to stay here in the US. I
Speaker 3: mean I've been sixteen years, seventeen years out of my
Speaker 3: no more more and more out of my country. And
Speaker 3: this is the place we feel mostly mostly home.
Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, you mentioned evs. I have to ask,
Speaker 1: are evs still going to happen?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, eventually, you think so?
Speaker 3: Truly? Yes, maybe not in the speed and the adoption
Speaker 3: that work initially expecting, but IV's are offering certain advantages.
Speaker 3: I can give an example my wife. She didn't want
Speaker 3: to drive any V.
Speaker 2: Why not because she had all these.
Speaker 3: Concerns of where do I charge, what if the range
Speaker 3: is not enough, my feeling I wanted to to have
Speaker 3: roaring sound of the engine and all that stuff. Three
Speaker 3: four months later, and actually three years down the road later,
Speaker 3: she does not want to step out of an electric
Speaker 3: The convenience of charging at home, the comfort it's offering,
Speaker 3: the chalk that you have, she's fascinated. So I'm not
Speaker 3: saying if is the only way, No, for God's sake,
Speaker 3: but a co existence of electric vehicles, of plug in hybrids,
Speaker 3: of internet combation engine is the future. And maybe in
Speaker 3: one part of the world where you live in California
Speaker 3: and be to a higher degree because infrastructure is there,
Speaker 3: because mindset, because because you know somewhere else it's much less.
Speaker 3: But the penetration development and the qualities of the evs
Speaker 3: will be much more visible in the future.
Speaker 2: I love that your wife didn't want to give up
Speaker 2: the roar of an internal combustion engine, but now she's
Speaker 2: addicted to the torque of an EV. You married the
Speaker 2: right woman.
Speaker 1: Okay, yes, is she Greek too?
Speaker 3: No, she's Brazilian. Brazilian. Yes, she's Brazilian. But I'll tell
Speaker 3: you the first when I got the I'm driving the
Speaker 3: electric cig class now, the five eighty. And you know,
Speaker 3: when you look at it externally, there's no differences, right,
Speaker 3: except some little badges of eque technology or whatever. So
Speaker 3: for a couple of days I did not declare it
Speaker 3: was an electric and I was driving it, and it
Speaker 3: has some sounds, right, so the sound, the talk, the
Speaker 3: speed whatever. She didn't realize it was it was electric
Speaker 3: only when the sign up here on the on the
Speaker 3: on the head un it's okay, it's you time to
Speaker 3: charge whatever, right, I said, Oh, that's electric.
Speaker 1: See I like that. I like not even it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not the defining characteristic of the vehicle. If it's
Speaker 1: if it works and it accomplishes the task, great, but
Speaker 1: it's not the defining characteristic of whatever.
Speaker 3: Vehicle.
Speaker 1: And that's great because you are it's an icon and
Speaker 1: the doors.
Speaker 2: Closing the doors is the defining characteristic of that vehicle for.
Speaker 3: So you have to slam the door. Yes, still she
Speaker 3: didn't get used to that, right, loving the door because
Speaker 3: in every other car.
Speaker 1: You say, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: You have to slam the door. Yeah.
Speaker 2: All right. Well, it's been great having you here.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna swing by your new store to check it out,
Speaker 2: looking forward to is it open now? I guess by
Speaker 2: the time this podcast, sure will be Friday.
Speaker 1: So yeah, Friday, and the public can go buy the
Speaker 1: new dealership.
Speaker 3: And yeah, except Sundays. Yeah, those are open for everyone. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that's some surpris ues though. It's a nice place to.
Speaker 2: Be nice, great talk, good talk. Great to hear from Dimitri.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking forward to going over to see the
Speaker 2: new dealership. I'm also looking forward to going to the show.
Speaker 2: By the way, you're here in New York, Cana. Yes,
Speaker 2: and I thought, oh, you must be here for the
Speaker 2: New York Auto Show.
Speaker 1: But that's not no, no, no, I'm I'm not going
Speaker 1: to the Javitt Center. I think I'm very happily not
Speaker 1: going the funny thing is auto shows are not as
Speaker 1: relevant as they have been for press, and that's the
Speaker 1: sad truth. So there's not a real reason to go
Speaker 1: over there.
Speaker 2: It is true, or it has become the case that
Speaker 2: auto shows are no longer where the big news breaks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean Mercedes has news. They're just not doing
Speaker 1: it at the autosh exactly. They're doing it at their
Speaker 1: own party.
Speaker 2: It's not always where the CEOs go. They're now more
Speaker 2: likely to go to cees completely.
Speaker 1: And let's be honest, no CEO loved being in a
Speaker 1: convention center all day for three days, talking to press
Speaker 1: in a little back room, and that was the format
Speaker 1: for auto shows for years, and they would just be
Speaker 1: on a you know, twenty minute rotating schedule.
Speaker 2: Still I love to go, I don't. I mean, I
Speaker 2: wasn't even considering going. But yesterday I had Jose Munios
Speaker 2: on my show, who now runs Hyundai, and.
Speaker 1: Would you take your daughters?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 1: Sorry, go ahead, good?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I would definitely And I would definitely take
Speaker 2: my daughter. And I may do that this weekend because
Speaker 2: right now I'm just gonna go to the press days.
Speaker 2: But you can bring you know, civilians this weekend. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna go now because Jose's gonna be there
Speaker 2: and I want to go and say thank you for
Speaker 2: coming on my show. And also because my buddy Hit,
Speaker 2: my new buddy who runs Buele, he wants to go
Speaker 2: because he's here from Grand Rapids, you know, like, yo,
Speaker 2: let's go to the show.
Speaker 1: I definitely think for consumers, for families, for kids, it's
Speaker 1: still a great place to be inside if it's a
Speaker 1: little bit cold or rainy out and look at a
Speaker 1: bunch of different new cars, for sure.
Speaker 2: And I like to go to dealerships too, so I
Speaker 2: guess it's just weird in that way, all right. It's
Speaker 2: been awesome having you here, so good. It's been great
Speaker 2: having Magnus here as well, and it was awesome talking
Speaker 2: to Dimitri. And we'll be back here next week with
Speaker 2: Bill Melvin, the CEO of Buell Motorcycles.
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg