Another CEO change for StreetScooter
After less than a year at the helm of DP/DHL’s electric van building business, StreetScooter CEO Jörg Sommer will be leaving the post, effective immediately. Markus Dörr, currently Chief Operations Officer will take over as CEO.
The parent company Deutsche Post issued a statement saying that the departure was amicable and due to “strategic differences regarding the future direction of the company.” Departing CEO Sommer took the position less than a year ago from one of the founders, Achim Kampker. Sommer came to StreetScooter from US electric delivery vehicle manufacturer Chanje, where he was Chief Operating Officer responsible for the production and the company’s growth strategy. Sommer is regarded as an experienced advocate of electric mobility and has over ten years of professional experience in this field, including management roles with Renault Group, Volkswagen and Daimler.
During Sommer’s time as CEO of StreetScooter, the German Post subsidiary has indeed seen a fairly phenomenal expansion as well as a continuing fiscal deficit. From being well established in European markets, StreetScooter has moved into the world’s largest electric vehicle markets, USA and China.
Last October StreetScooter revealed that it will again make a loss. “It will be a significant double-digit million amount again this year”, said Deutsche Post CEO Frank Appel to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. It is no secret that Deutsche Post has never really been interested in becoming a vehicle manufacturer per se. Deutsche Post took over the startup in 2014 to satisfy its own need for appropriate electric delivery vehicles and has been trying to sell the company for the last couple of years. Despite numerous expressions of interest, one from carmaking giant Volkswagen, the other rumoured to come from founding member and transport industry innovator Günther Schuh, StreetScooter is still under the auspices of Deutsche Post.
Sommer was explicitly responsible for international expansion and under his leadership, StreetScooter expanded into China and the USA. In November Deutsche Post/DHL announced that StreetScooter would launch the StreetScooter Work L electric delivery van in two US cities from spring this year. According to CTO Ulrich Stuhec, StreetScooter’s EVs could be established on a large scale in the USA in 2022 or 2023. In September last year, StreetScooter announced its expansion into China, when StreetScooter and the Chinese car manufacturer Chery began setting up a joint venture to build and sell electric delivery vans there.
StreetScooter has also forged ahead with new purpose-built logistics vehicles, including the development of fuel cell vehicles capable of longer distances and shorter refuelling. The company recently landed a large order from delivery giant Amazon in Munich.
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