Former Daimler Trucks Asia boss Marc Llistosella  joins Einride

A little more than a year after he left the world's biggest truck maker, Marc Llistosella, former president and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation and Head of Daimler Trucks Asia, has joined Einride’s board of directors.

Sweden-based Einride, which bills itself as 'The intelligent movement company' is targeting complete transformation of the transportation industry. According to the company, by challenging conventional thinking, by utilising big data and cutting-edge technology — and by inspiring people to take responsibility for the planet and each other — Einride is making the movement of goods more intelligent: emission-free, safe, cost-effective, and ultimately, sustainable.

Marc Llistosella, who is also an investor in Einride, will clearly add a wealth of knowledge and experience from several leading roles in the automotive sector, not least as former president and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corporation and head of Daimler Trucks Asia, where he successfully transformed and repositioned the Fuso brand as a leader in the electrification of commercial vehicles.

According to Robert Falck, founder and CEO of Einride, "Marc is passionate about transforming road freight transport and developing a safe, cost efficient and sustainable transportation system. His track record of building commercially successful businesses around electric vehicles will be a great contribution to Einride, as we continue to scale the company. Mr Llistosella's prime focus will be to secure the scaling of supply of hardware."

"Einride is the next step of automotive evolution and a dream come true for me. It combines cutting- edge technologies in electrification and autonomous systems and raises the bar for the entire transport industry," said Llistosella.

Llistosella joined Daimler AG in 1995, where he held various management positions in the company. In 2006 he was appointed project leader for the entry into the Indian market. He later became CEO and managing director of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), and built Daimler’s operations in the country, as a greenfield project, from the ground up to a fully operational company with almost 3 000 employees and the newly established brand of BharatBenz.

In April 2015, he was appointed president and CEO of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) and Head of Daimler Trucks Asia. Mr Llistosella successfully transformed and repositioned the Fuso brand as a leader in the electrification of commercial vehicles, and was responsible for more than 15 000 employees, the production of 170,000 vehicles per year and annual revenues of more than $7 billion.

Capable of SAE Level 4 self-driving, the Einride T-Pod has no driver's cab but can be remotely controlled by a human operator when appropriate.

T-Pod: Electric driverless truck
Einride's all-electric T-Pod is the first truck designed specifically for electric propulsion and autonomous driving. Sustainable, cost-effective and safe, Einride says "it renders many conventional road transportation solution practically obsolete."

Capable of SAE Level 4 self-driving, the T-Pod has no driver's cab but can be remotely controlled by a human operator when appropriate. No driver means a smaller vehicle, increased loading capacity, greater flexibility, increased safety, lower operating costs and optimised energy consumption, allowing the T-pod to run solely on batteries.

Einride says it takes a life-cycle approach to batteries. Avoiding the use of 'conflict minerals', Einride requires complete documentation on the origin of all raw materials. Second-, even third-life applications are considered during the design process, as well as end-of-life recyclability, to guarantee the sustainability of the solution.

Equipped with cameras, radars and lidars, the T-Pod has 360deg awareness of its surroundings.

Einride bags gold in European start-up prize for mobility
On April 11, 2019, Einride took its mission to transform global road freight transport to Brussels and the EU. The company bagged gold in the European Startup Prize for Mobility during the European New Mobilities Summit that took place at Autoworld. Einride was one of 10 finalists.

The European Startup Prize for Mobility is a leading public-private initiative co-founded by the European Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee Chairwoman, Karima Delli, Boston Consulting Group and Via ID.

"We are on a mission to develop a safe, cost-efficient and sustainable alternative for road freight transport. Getting the right policy in place to facilitate this transformation is key. Being a finalist in the European Start-up Prize for Mobility allows us access to important decision makers and opinion makers on an EU-level and a network of potential customers, partners and talent throughout Europe," said Robert Falck, founder and CEO of Einride.

VIDEO: Interview with Marc Llistosella just before he left Daimler Group in end-March 2018.
In this interview to Autocar Professional, Llistosella talks about repositioning the Fuso brand, Daimler Trucks' EV strategy for India, the challenge of leading Daimler's entry into the Indian trucking industry with the Bharat Benz brand, the hurdles on the way, and why India is special for him. And he also talks about leadership mantras that work.

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