In love with Barcelona – “It is the most beautiful city in the world” – where he lived five years as president of Seat, Luca de Meo He returned last week to the Catalan capital to participate in the Annual Meeting of Cercle d’acomia and present the Spanish edition of his book Automobile sentimental dictionary.
De Meo defends in the work the “emotional dimension” of the car and remembers that he decided as a child to dedicate his life to this universe when he could take a turn in a fulvia lancia conducted by the great Italian pilot Arnaldo Cavallari. Man of great cordiality, he only breaks her by asking him if Stellantis has proposed the group’s address, vacant since the march of Carlos Tavares. “Work at Renault,” he concludes.
Surprises the amount of personalities that have collaborated in the book, from the President of Volkswagen, Oliver Blume, to the Executive Director of Google, SUCTING PICHAI, or the composer Jean-Michel Jarre.
-How has it succeeded?
-It knows everyone. Sometimes they have been my bosses … for example Jim Farley, general director of Ford, my boss when we were in Toyota. Sometimes I have worked with those people, such as Wolfgang Porsche (President of the Porsche Surveillance Council) when he was in Volkswagen, of which he is one of the main shareholders. Sometimes, they are encounters that I have had as passionate about the car I am. There is Jacky Ickx, who comments 24 hours in Le Mans, because he has won it. Or Luc Donckerwolke (president of Hyundai Motor Group), who is my friend. My experience has also served me, because I have been before Fiat, Toyota, Volkswagen and Seat. I wanted to make a collective tribute to an industry that we like a lot, because it is our industry. It is not the book by Luca de Meo, I see it as the book of the car’s tribe. We are going to publish it with adaptations in more countries, also in China.
“We look at China as a dragon that takes fire but they are great entrepreneurs”
-In China, the great competitors?
-They are people who have done incredible things. Think of Geely’s creator, or Chery’s, or child’s. We look at China as a red dragon that takes fire through the mouth, but it is a story of people, of great entrepreneurs. My passion is the car and when I see what these people have done “Hat!”. They are formidable competitors. All this antagonist logic of seeing them as enemies comes from politics, but we are not like that, we do not do politics. We look for the agreement, we are business people.
-In Renault you turned the results. He joked a few weeks ago with which he has found the formula of the magic potion of Astérix and Obélix. Can you share it?
-There are many ingredients, some secrets, others available for everyone. First, a lot of work and a lot of common sense, because in the end many organizations have a tendency to lose common sense. We have had to adapt the organization’s dimension to the business dimension. Our predecessors had created a system to be able to build and sell more than 5 million cars, but we have never sold more than 3 million and peak. And also, we lost money. We earn much more selling 2.5 million than 3.5 million vehicles.
-Do you try to lose weight, then?
-You have to lose weight and you have to be different. We have made a very strong restructuring, which is something that executives do not like. We are here to create value, to create employment, to invent things … but sometimes you have to diet: first it is very hard but then you feel better. And secondly, we have reversed in product, because when I arrived there was nothing in the drawer, and we were in a hurry, there was no time. Instead of making a new car in five years, we have made a range of 22-25 cars in three years, putting a lot of pressure throughout the organization to get it. In 2024 we launched 10 cars in a year. The product is the basis of everything. In the automobile industry, when you have a good product, 70% of the problems are fixed. With a good product, everything works. And finally, we have simplified the offer of brands.
-Waging size is no longer the most important?
-Traditionally, the idea was that the bigger, the strongest you are. But that works with a stable demand and mature technology. What happens when, as now, there is a brutal volatility of markets, demand? There are cars that after two years are no longer sold, because technology has changed. We do not know in five years what exactly the chemistry of electric car batteries that will succeed will be. In such an environment, very agile companies that can endure shocks and volatility are needed. That is why I do not bet on investing millions, but for looking for cooperations, sharing risks with external operators. Some have announced gigafactories as if they were bakeries, not.
-In his speech at Cercle, he warned that European regulation is excessive and that we run the risk that the car market will be reduced by half …
-Well, I see that the Americans are committed to protecting their market, and that in the previous administration they opted to stimulate it. I see that the Chinese developed their plan 15 years ago Made in China 2025which is working and has turned the country into a power not only for the production of the electric car, but also of innovation. And what have we done in Europe? Regulate everything, sometimes even before knowing where the business is going. It makes no sense. Now they want to regulate the car data market, when it is nothing, it still does not exist. That paralyzes and increases manufacturing costs.
-Do you think the market, now 20% below, will recover early levels?
-It is that all that happens when people cannot buy new cars, because the purchasing power of the middle class falls and people do not reach the end of the month. It is a vicious circle. And we want to sell cars, we want to give people mobility. In Renault we make cars for normal people and normal people cannot buy cars. In Europe, in addition, there is a demand for small cars, but with all the existing regulation they cannot be profitable. We must consider what type of society we want, because this industry is based on the welfare of the middle class. Without a strong middle class, the automobile industry does not work. Or the situation of young people … Of course they want to drive cars, but they can’t pay them!
Fuente: La Vanguarda – Elisenda Vallejo
