Cool As Ice

Mercedes-Benz’s brainy, down-to-earth CEO Ola Källenius is an expert at racing a nearly 4-ton truck across a frozen lake. Can he steer the marque’s electric vehicle-focused future as adeptly?

- Ben Oliver

Ola Källenius is standing in a cold, bare workshop just south of the Arctic Circle in his native Sweden. A heavily disguised prototype of the new electric G-Class SUV—not yet launched when we meet—has just returned from highspeed, low-grip testing on tracks cut into the frozen lakes nearby and is being hoisted into the air on a hydraulic lift for inspection. As it drips meltwater onto the concrete floor, Källenius, CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Group, eats his lunch (today, a pre-made sandwich and a carton of juice) and speaks in fluent German to the mostly Austrian engineers who spend months in this bleak locale ensuring that the company’s new models can cope with the types of conditions in which vanishingly few customers will ever actually drive. They discuss the truck’s handling on ice and the progress of its test programme. Källenius compliments them on the car’s dynamics—how stable it remained even at speed, how safe he felt driving it—and asks them how long they’re here.

“There are some harsh realities to this job and to the car industry,” he tells me later. “But this is what I love doing: spending time with our designers or driving with you on an ice-lake in Sweden or talking to these engineers. I wanted to congratulate them on what they’ve achieved. We get to enjoy a nice couple of days here, but they’re here for a long time.”