zetsche

Dieter Zetsche, chief executive Daimler, told BBC News there was no demand for electric Maybachs so it would not follow suit.

Back at his car, he found a voice-mail message: Dieter Zetsche, the head of Daimler, wanted to meet him urgently.

Zetsche said that "few areas" would be off limits for a Daimler-BMW partnership, but failed to mention which areas those would be .

"We are the only country, " Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche scoffed, "that has created a program worth billions to subsidize foreign industry. "

"Hope may not be the best basis for a management decision, " Mr Zetsche conceded this week.

Mr. Zetsche also said he doesn't expect any major overcapacity in China's auto industry if its economic growth remains at a fast pace.

Zetsche hopes that setting a new deadline for a fuel cell car will provide an incentive for others to start building.

Dieter Zetsche, Daimler's chief executive, said that the two groups had found the "right cultural fit" for the partnership.

With hindsight, Mr Zetsche's decision to appear in his firm's advertisements was itself a bad omen.

"Dieter is really an inspirational leader, " Mike Jackson, chief executive of U. S. auto dealership group AutoNation, once told Reuters.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu and Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche signed a contract in Beijing Thursday to finalize the agreement.

"The center of gravity is moving eastward, " Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler, told reporters at the show.

Daimler insiders said Dieter Zetsche, the new chief executive, put his weight behind a campaign to promote ethical behaviour.

Zetsche revealed that Mercedes will introduce a fuel cell car by the "middle of the decade. "

The latest sackings come on top of a previous cull in 2001, when Mr Zetsche cut a third of Chrysler's payroll.

Eventually Mr Ghosn is hoping for a bigger cross-holding than the tiny stakes in each other that Mr Zetsche agreed to.

Zetsche identified three traits of leadership he feels are most important: competence, responsibility and authenticity.

"All options are on the table, " Dieter Zetsche, chairman, said yesterday at Chrysler's headquarters in Detroit.

"[Bodo] Uebber [chief financial officer] and Zetsche are really cleaning the house, " one said.

Even earlier, Zetsche's predecessor, Jurgen Schrempp, had promised a Mercedes fuel cell car 2004, and it never left the laboratory.

Market research also supports Mr Zetsche's estimate.

Zetsche said it is Daimler's first Mercedes car engine plant outside Germany.

"I am convinced that the euro has staying power and won't fall apart, " says Daimler (DAI) CEO Dieter Zetsche.

Zetsche said more Mercedes-Benz models would be made in China in the future, but did not elaborate.

That joint venture, Mr. Zetsche said, is progressing 'according to plan. '

Mr. Zetsche's outlook was relatively more pessimistic than that of early electric-car adapters such as Nissan Motor Co. of Japan.

'Our new joint venture is well positioned to make the most of the vast potential of electric mobility in China, ' Mr. Zetsche said.

Zetsche said alternative-energy cars will be the new growth point for Daimler in China.

Mr. Zetsche said Daimler is on track to start producing in 2013 at a Beijing factory the engines for cars it expects to sell in China.

Mr. Zetsche said at the conference that automobile sales in China might reach 20 million to 30 million vehicles by 2020.

The high market demand has seen Daimler raise its sales target to more than 120, 000 units in China for 2010, according to.