Friedrich Ebert Stiftung THE FUTURE OF THE GERMAN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung

Across the world, the established models of the automotive industry of the 20th century are increasingly dissolving. The enormous implications of that shift on economic, employment,
  1. and innovation policies have put the automotive industry in Germany and Europe under pressure. This is happening at a time when the industry is on an expansion course, with rising sales, growing employment, and increasing exports. Our mobility is undergoing change from strong and globally relevant megatrends, new mobility needs in urbanising transport markets, and hitherto unknown forms of competition, for instance from the up-and-coming IT sector, but also from China's industrial policy objectives. The concomitant trends towards electrification, networking, automation