China innovation outlook: EU car makers eye big electric vehicle potential

I was listening very carefully to what Premier Li was talking about and he was highlighting the main things in the 15th 5-year plan. And as I was listening to him and when we read the document that came out from the two sessions, of course the headlines are innovation and technology. How do you leverage artificial intelligence and also robotics? The road towards sustainability and as a general statement, quality growth. We thought to ourselves, that is the Mercedes-Benz plan for China. So there is a perfect match and the auto industry has a very big role to play there. He talked about the competitive dynamics and mentioned that this was like the fitness center of the world. And I can certainly say that's true for the auto industry. But if you want to participate in a sport at the highest level, play football, you want to play Champions League. So if you want to participate in competition on the highest level, you got to be in China. And that's Mercedes-Benz strategy to double down on China and invest in China for the long term.

So going back to what Premier Li said, I think he made a very strong statement. China's open for business. And we want companies to come to China. We want also companies to export to China. In fact, he was talking about setting up a hundred different forums, import-export forums. So if China continues to open up the market and make it easier for us either to invest or through our operations from overseas access the market, of course, that would be important for us. But I think long term that is going to strengthen China. Let's not be naive. Over the last several years, there have been more protectionistic movements around the world in different places. Speaking as somebody who has the privilege of leading a global company, you don't want protectionism. You want opening up. And maybe the markets and if China chooses to go this way and maybe be a contrary in a more protectionistic environment to open up, I believe that will be a long-term benefit. In terms of the transformation to zero emission, I'm absolutely convinced that we will end up one day with all zero emission vehicles.