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Mate Rimac isn’t just a very smart guy or a pioneer-turned-executive in the automotive industry—he’s an automotive enthusiast through and through and tends to call it as he sees it. His latest Instagram video is no exception.
Rimac, who currently serves as the president of Bugatti, the Rimac Group, and CEO of Bugatti Rimac, went on a brief tirade about the state of the European automotive industry. Specifically, he tore into the Euro OEMs—I suppose he was mostly referring to Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Ferrari, and the sort—about their latest trends in vehicle design, technology, and features.
Here’s the full speech:
“The European automotive industry is in trouble, and now they’re running around paying tens of millions or hundreds of millions to consultants to get them out of it. I’ll save you the money. What you should not do is try to do what everyone else is doing and what the Chinese are very hard to beat at; the biggest screens, less buttons, faster recharge times. Don’t do that.
But I won’t just tell you what not to do, I’ll also tell you what to do. Just do this. This… This… this… this… [he taps around the interior of a vintage Rolls-Royce]. Take leather, real materials, real stuff. Stuff like this. And yes, you can say, ‘Well, it’s a luxury car, it is not for everyone. They need to make a car for everyone.’ That’s where we disagree. I think you won’t be able to do that. Need to find our niche, like the Swiss found with watchmaking. They don’t make a watch for everyone, but that’s where most of the profit is. They just make 5% of the world’s watches, but 90% of the profits in watchmaking. And it’s either this or, I think, there won’t be a future, because it will be very hard to compete with the Chinese doing the same they are trying to do. So there you go, I just saved you lots of money.“
So there you have it, folks, one of the automotive industry’s brightest minds calling for fewer screens (or smaller screens), more buttons, and for European carmakers to get back to what once made them great. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
It’s nice, but it’s also highly unrealistic—maybe not all aspects of his speech, but definitely the bit about companies trying to make cars for everyone. A company like Mercedes can’t just live on S-Class sales, and neither can BMW, Audi, etc. Where would Porsche be without the Cayenne? Not here, that’s for sure.
Still, he has a point, and a very good one. Tell us more, Mate. Maybe on The Drivecast?
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As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive’s short- and long-term coverage.
