The German Automotive Industry is recognised all over the
world for its engineering excellence. In the 2018/2019 industry overview by
Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI) reported that automotive industry is the
largest industry sector in Germany, listing turnover of €426.2 billion (around
20% of total German industry revenue). Germany is Europe’s number one
automotive market, accounting for around 30% of all passenger cars manufactured
(5.12 million).
On September 18th 2015, the US Environmental
Protection Agency exposed “Dieselgate”, the emissions cheating scandal which
saw three Volkswagen chiefs charged and Daimler heavily fined. Since the
scandal the German automotive industry has had major repercussions. Alongside
the woes of dieselgate, there is fear that global trade tensions, fears of a
hard Brexit and the shrinking of the Chinese car market hitting foreign
manufacturing groups will take effect on the Germany automotive industry. The
Financial Times reported production of cars in Germany has declined by 12% in
the first half of 2019. Over the summer, Daimler and Audi both recorded slumps
in sales.
The automotive industry is under pressure to ditch diesel
and switch to electric vehicles with the government pleading to put one million
electric cards on the road by 2020. There are already six million electric
vehicles in operation worldwide and the market is growing by 40% year-on-year.
The health of the car industry is critical to Germany’s
economic strength which is why Germany’s automotive giants are realising the
effect of US giants Tesla, Uber, Apple and Google are investing in the
development of self-driving cars and are gearing up to make huge investments
into developing electric and self-driving cars, securing the future of the
industry. According to Volkswagen’s CEO Herbert Diess, the transformation could
cost German firms around €100 million. Germany is one of the strongest countries in
the world when it comes to high-tech automotive products, including autonomous
driving technology says Hui Zhang, Managing Director at NIO Germany an
automobile manufacturer specialising in designing and developing electric
autonomous vehicles.
If you want to find out more information about the current
state of the German automotive industry and discuss any opportunities we have
within Dusseldorf or Mannheim, please get in
touch.
