Deutsche Post DHL has hired two internationally experienced automotive managers to help grow its loss-making electric vehicles subsidiary StreetScooter as the hunt for new investors continues.
Former Tesla director Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen will become Chief Growth Officer and will be responsible for building up the international sales organization, while ex-Ford manager Ulrich Stuhec will be the new Chief Technical Officer, tasked with driving product and technology development.
Danish-born Bardenfleth-Hansen was part of the first European Tesla team and was instrumental in transforming the company from a small start-up to a global heavyweight in electric vehicle production. In particular, he developed a number of key markets for Tesla, including Norway, Japan and the Middle East.
“Joining StreetScooter is in many ways my ideal progression in a quest to change the heart of mobility from fossil fuels to renewables. It was necessary to start that revolution by electrifying personal mobility but the real difference will not happen until the transportation of goods is 100% sustainable and particle pollution is out of our cities – and StreetScooter is leading that change,” he said.
Stuhec, with 25 years’ experience at Ford and BMW, has been involved in the development of numerous cars and trucks, SUVs and commercial vehicles for markets in the US, Europe, China, India, Brazil and Russia. He played a key role in driving the development of autonomous vehicles at Ford in the US.
“I look forward to working with the StreetScooter engineering team to develop new products and fine-tune existing vehicle programs, to integrate leading-edge technologies and to help shape the company’s amazing growth with the outstanding management team,” he commented.
CEO Jörg Sommer explained: “I’m delighted that we have succeeded in attracting two internationally experienced top managers from the automotive industry and the e-mobility sector to StreetScooter. I’m convinced that with Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen and Ulrich Stuhec joining us, we can pave the way for our company to enjoy successful international growth. Together we will maintain our market leadership in e-commercial vehicles and turn StreetScooter from a vehicle manufacturer into the leading energy and logistics platform for the last mile.”
Meanwhile, Deutsche Post DHL Group CEO Frank Appel has confirmed that the German logistics group is continuing to look for a buyer for the electric vehicle manufacturer, which is expected to make a “significant” double-digit million euro loss this year. “We are in talks with potential partners and buyers,” he told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Deutsche Post DHL is now using 10,000 StreetScooter electric vans in its own daily delivery operations but has so far only managed to sell about 1,500 vehicles to external clients, including 500 to Japan’s Yamato Group. StreetScooter operates two production locations with total annual production capacity for 20,000 vehicles. It recently signed a joint venture with China’s Chery Holding to enter the Chinese market.
