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Ola Källenius, the newest addition to Daimler AG's (OTC: DDAIF) board of management, covered a wide range of topics at the 2015 Automotive News World Congress last week. As expected, technology proved to be one of the most important things discussed at the event.
Källenius, who leads global marketing and sales for Daimler's cars, said that mobile tech is already allowing the company to improve service times at various dealerships. He used one example where a dealer greeted a customer with an iPad, which was already loaded with his information. The customer was checked in, handed over his car and received it back in the promised time of just 45 minutes.
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"I do think that technology, in terms of shortening the process [and] increasing convenience, is already playing a big role," Källenius told Benzinga during a press Q&A. "We will roll that out on a worldwide basis in the years to come."
So Many Materials, So Little Time
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) does not plan to build many aluminum vehicles outside of its new truck. Källenius didn't comment on that decision, but he did speak about Daimler's plans for the material.
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"Lightweight is very important," said Källenius, noting that the last C-Class was 100 kilograms lighter than the previous model (despite being a larger vehicle that offered more features). He thinks this trend -- where weight is reduced while additional features are added -- will continue.
"In spite of the fact that we're adding content, more safety [features] and so on, [weight is] going down," Källenius added. "Aluminum is one of the answers. We heavily used aluminum in the C-Class. But it needs to be an intelligent material mix. You can work with aluminum. You can work with very new, innovative, high-strength steels. In some of the sports cars you can go into carbon fiber. You can work with magnesium…we try to find the right spot for the right material."
Prehistoric Product Placement
Mercedes-Benz vehicles were a big part of "The Lost World: Jurassic Park." This summer they will be featured in the series' fourth chapter, "Jurassic World."
"It's important," said Källenius. "It's one of the marketing tools that we use."
Källenius said that viewers may not even realize how prevalent Mercedes-Benz vehicles are in movies, TV and video games.
"Subliminally, you may not know, but there's a lot of Mercedes in the right place in a lot of shows," he said. "[It's] one good marketing tool of many that we've used for many years and will continue using. Gaming, not just ones you get through game consoles but also Internet gaming, is [also] important to us."
Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.
Crypto Whales Are Loading Up — Are You?
New research shows the biggest crypto buyers are back. And this time? They could hold for the possibility that Bitcoin will surpass $100,000 in 2024. You don’t want to miss the next massive crypto bull run like we saw in 2020 and 2021. To know exactly what’s going on and what to buy… Get Access To Benzinga’s Best Crypto Research and Investments For Only $1.