Power List 100 2023 - Top 10

Autocar Business's yearly Power List 100 names the 100 astir influential large movers and shakers successful the automotive industry.

The Power List 100, sponsored by Keyloop, shows the value of this manufacture globally: 1 that wields large power, but that powerfulness is perpetually shifting.

The apical 10 are ranked based on global scope and influence, spending power, stock of voice, technological influence, aboriginal maturation imaginable and marketplace capitalisation.

The remaining 90 names connected the database are grouped into categories, including executives from much accepted car makers to the rising powerhouses from China, the latest exertion firms and mobility companies.

1- Luca de Meo, CEO Renault

Luca de Meo’s improbable ascent to the apical of this illustration is testament to the bonzer turnaround helium has achieved astatine the Renault Group. When helium joined successful 2020, the French institution had fallen into 1 of the deepest fiscal holes ever faced by a planetary automotive company, aft losing €8 cardinal the erstwhile year.

The pandemic had abruptly turned disconnected the currency pat and exposed each kinds of problems successful a institution inactive suffering from the dash-for-volume attack of its erstwhile CEO but one, Carlos Ghosn. De Meo called connected his years of acquisition gleaned astatine progressively elder postings astatine Toyota, the Fiat Group and the Volkswagen Group, wherever helium roseate to pb Seat and Cupra, and went to enactment connected repairing Renault. 

Under de Meo’s leadership, Renault scraped a nett successful 2021, earlier doubling it to €2.6bn successful 2022 connected a borderline of 5.6%. For a measurement subordinate similar Renault, that’s healthy, but successful the archetypal fractional of this year, the institution broke its all-time borderline grounds of 7% with a 7.6% effect connected profits of €2.12bn. Profits astatine each car companies person been easier to travel by post-pandemic arsenic proviso constraints allowed them to trim discounting, but de Meo has had to negociate a bid of unsocial carnivore traps that mightiness person undone a lesser executive.

With the Russian penetration of Ukraine, helium acted swiftly to dispose of Renault’s concern successful Russia, which included the achy determination to driblet Lada conscionable arsenic it was coming bully aft a agelong turnaround.

De Meo has besides taken a much pragmatic attack to the Alliance with Nissan, including defusing the shareholding imbalance that has agelong rankled with Renault’s Japanese partner. He ripped up Renault’s merchandise program connected time 1 of the occupation aft being shown excessively galore low-margin tiny cars successful the plan workplace and shifted the motorboat absorption to bigger, much profitable segments to underpin the institution portion allowing the smaller cars to remain, some astatine Renault and Dacia.

Shrewd platform-sharing has reduced improvement costs by up to 40%, helium has boasted.Challenges remain.

Splitting the institution into divisions, including the electric-focused Ampere, volition beryllium a pugnacious merchantability to investors, who volition wonderment what they summation from buying shares successful a Renault part truthful powerfully connected to the core. De Meo has besides yet to replicate his proven selling magic connected expanding the Alpine premium marque with its attached problematic Formula 1 team.

De Meo’s competent demeanour, steely concern approach, unrivalled networking quality and smartly applied acquisition has fixed Renault the quality to not conscionable past but besides powerfully vie successful a fast-changing market.

=2 - Oliver Blume, Chairman VW Group; CEO, Porsche

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume took implicit the moving of the full Volkswagen Group successful September past twelvemonth aft his predecessor, Herbert Diess, was ousted, reportedly for failing to tackle myriad problems astatine the group’s Cariad bundle division. 

His assignment followed 7 years astatine Porsche, a relation helium retains, and underlines the value of this phenomenally profitable marque to the group. The promotion challenges Blume to repetition the occurrence group-wide. 

Blume has shrunk the board, replaced the Cariad caput and reorganised the divisions to manus them much concern responsibility. China is simply a cardinal interest among VW investors and Blume has shown boldness successful propping up VW’s ailing presumption thereby forging partnerships with faster, much integer EV brands specified arsenic Xpeng. 

The institution remains the world’s largest car shaper connected gross and Blume’s balancing enactment to overhaul VW’s stuttering electrical propulsion aft a beardown commencement portion smoothly moving retired its profitable combustion-engine models volition either cement his glowing estimation oregon tarnish it for good.

=2 - Carlos Tavares, CEO Stellantis

Our 2020 victor is inactive displaying the aforesaid rigorous attack to controlling spending bloat astatine the sprawling 14-brand planetary company, astir precocious posting profits of €14.1bn implicit the archetypal six months of the twelvemonth connected revenues implicit astir €100bn. Its 14.4% borderline is good supra thing a mostly volume-brand institution would person thought imaginable 10 years ago. 

Tavares joined PSA successful 2013 and has been steadily assembling the manufacturing multi-brand standard helium feels is needed to present costly innovations and electrification. But portion he’s achieved level scale, the brands are thriving with their ain identities, and adjacent occupation cases specified arsenic Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia are being fixed their accidental to shine. 

Tavares chopped his teeth successful the Renault Group and Nissan moving nether Carlos Ghosn, who went connected to undermine his bully enactment with a financially crippling growth-at- all-cost strategy earlier being toppled. Tavares has shown the subject to debar that and adjacent his China exit strategy, which appeared astatine archetypal to beryllium weakness, present looks similar foresight.

4- Euisun Chung, enforcement seat Hyundai Motor Group

In 2020, Euisun Chung took implicit the reins of the Korean institution founded by his household and has worked to proceed the modernisation helium has been pushing done since joining successful 1999.

Chung, who studied successful San Francisco, has shown a willingness to larn from others,even if it means taking risks erstwhile it comes to partnerships, specified arsenic investing successful companies similar robotic specialists Boston Dynamics, Rimac and self-driving concern Motional. 

He was besides the driving unit down the constitution of the palmy Genesis premium brand. But it’s successful EVs that Hyundai nether Chung has possibly made the biggest waves. Jumping consecutive to newer exertion specified arsenic the 800V artillery set-up portion taking a hazard connected edgy designs specified arsenic the Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Kia EV6 is the people of a institution committed to not conscionable making the electrical modulation but owning it arsenic well.

5- Wang Chuanfu, chairman, CEO BYD

China’s BYD is successful the presumption Toyota occupied successful the aboriginal 1980s, looking to substantially turn its steadfast exports aft rising to apical its home car market. The occurrence of the company, whose initials basal for Build Your Dreams, is down to the tenacity of its CEO, president and founder, Wang Chuanfu. 

Wang was orphaned young and grew up poor, but parlayed a chemic grade into a concern start-up that archetypal made its sanction arsenic China’s foremost mobile telephone artillery company. He turned his attraction to cars and successful 1998 won concern from hard-nosed US financier Warren Buffett.

Wang’s insistence that BYD make beauteous overmuch each the parts for its cars in-house has fixed it an borderline implicit rivals, but obscurity more

so than successful batteries. Its improvement of cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate cells has led to the roll- retired of EVs priced connected par with combustion-engine vehicles successful China. That’s paid off. In the archetypal 7 months of this year, BYD took a 37% stock successful China’s new-energy market, which includes EVs and plug-in hybrids, and overtook VW to go the number-one marque outright.

6- Koji Sato, president, CEO Toyota

Koji Sato took implicit from Toyota household scion Akio Toyoda arsenic CEO successful April and derives his powerfulness from overseeing what is inactive the world’s largest car shaper by volume. Sato started astatine the institution successful 1992 and went connected to oversee Lexus arsenic good arsenic pb Toyota’s Gazoo racing arm. 

His remit present is to overhaul Toyota into the digital, electrical epoch with each the upheaval that implies for an automotive powerhouse unused to deviating from long- planned concern strategies. Toyota’s existent automotive enactment is nether menace globally from Chinese car makers, with their concern vantage connected batteries. 

Sato has to negociate a way betwixt focusing connected its long-held strategies for a zero-emission future, including hydrogen and solid-state batteries, and partnering artillery specialists similar BYD for medium-term success. It’s hard to ideate Toyota giving up enactment that rapidly and Sato’s race-honed wiliness volition beryllium cardinal to it maintaining its planetary rod position.

7 - Elon Musk, CEO Tesla

Elon Musk’s foray into Twitter ownership has not dented the abilities of Tesla to proceed rewriting the automotive rulebook. His EV marque built astir a cardinal cars successful the archetypal fractional of the twelvemonth – a fig that came adjacent to Tesla’s full 2021 output – mostly from conscionable 2 models, and the Model Y was Europe’s best-selling car outright. 

Musk’s refusal to travel the automotive constitution has resulted successful Tesla learning the immutable rules the hard mode but besides uncovering caller paths that his erstwhile dismissive rivals are present scrabbling to follow. There are plentifulness of questions up for the pioneer but helium remains

a cardinal powerfulness fig arsenic Tesla continues to pb the speech connected the power to a integer and electrical future, astatine slightest extracurricular China.

8 - Oliver Zipse, president BMW

After being appointed to the apical occupation successful 2019, Oliver Zipse helped turn revenues to €142bn successful 2022, up from €104bn successful 2019, contempt selling less cars (2.40m versus 2.54m). 

He has been aided by the supplier compression that helped chopped discounts, but the erstwhile accumulation main has been astute astir balancing the enlargement of EVs with continued accumulation of profitable combustion models, often broadside by broadside successful the aforesaid factories. His mettle volition beryllium tested by the motorboat of the Neue Klasse electrical models from 2025 that volition beryllium built connected a dedicated level successful Europe, Mexico and China.  

BMW has promised class-leading performance, terms and exertion arsenic it aims to support profits flowing successful cardinal planetary regions. Profit margins past twelvemonth deed an awesome 16.5% earlier taxation of €23.5bn and investors volition beryllium anxious BMW remains arsenic profitable arsenic Neue Klasse models commencement to compression retired combustion ones.

9 - Ola Kallenius, president Mercedes-Benz Group

The Swedish-born president of Mercedes-Benz continues to marque an interaction aft taking the helm successful 2019, astir precocious impressing investors aft the institution bushed net forecasts successful the 2nd 4th of 2023 with profits of €5bn and predicted it would lucifer 2022’s €20bn profit. 

Källenius has been 1 of the astir vocal advocates of the value-over-volume strategy to bounds sales, summation prices and absorption connected high-margin, high-price models, a strategy that is paying disconnected handsomely. 

On the tech side, helium pushed the steadfast to unafraid the archetypal accreditation from the Germany authorities to tally the S-Class and EQS hands-free successful definite scenarios and that breakthrough has present been extended to California. 

Mercedes has besides shown braveness successful rolling retired the nonstop income ‘agency’ exemplary globally. To date, the company’s deft continuation of its beardown presumption successful China has reaped dividends arsenic much measurement planetary brands conflict against section rivals. 

Mercedes’ luxury presumption determination has truthful acold protected it from the EV-led terms wars successful the little categories. However, the fast-paced determination up the luxury ladder by nascent Chinese premium brands is 1 of Källenius’s headaches to solve.

10- Li Shufu, president Geely

The Chinese institution started by Li Shufu archetypal made refrigerators earlier moving to motorbikes and lone built its archetypal car successful 1997. Since then, it has acquired brands arsenic divers arsenic Volvo, LEVC, Proton and Lotus portion taking a adjacent 10% involvement successful Mercedes-Benz and 50% successful Smart. Geely has besides been stalking Aston Martin and from May captured a 17% involvement successful the institution on with a spot connected the board. 

Li’s ambition besides extends to in-house brands and the premium Zeekr part this twelvemonth volition grow into Europe to springiness Geely different space of onslaught connected the incumbents. 

Li has been dubbed the Henry Ford of China for his appetite for growth, but adjacent Henry would boggle astatine the analyzable firm structures built to disagreement up ownership of the assorted brands and juggle finances successful the teeth of margin-destroying terms wars successful China. 

The affable poem-quoting CEO inspires an astir cult-like pursuing among his employees, but companies are encouraged to enactment autonomously alternatively than to a firm diktat, allowing them to determination quickly.

How are the 100 names in Autocar's Power List chosen?

The Power List ranks is made up of the world's 100 astir influential automotive heads, based connected the following criteria: planetary scope and influence, spending power, share of voice, technological influence, future maturation imaginable and market capitalisation. 

The apical 10 are ranked and the remaining 90 names connected the database are grouped into categories, including executives from much accepted car makers to the rising powerhouses from China and the latest technology and mobility companies. 

These names were chosen by the editors of Autocar Business, the B2B merchandise from the steadfast of Autocar, designed to bring industry readers adjacent person to the inner workings and cardinal players of the global automotive industry.

The afloat database volition beryllium disposable to download here.