Germany’s automotive association (VDA) says despite myriad challenges currently facing the country, its vehicle sector continues to power ahead, albeit with the caveat it requires better political regulation.
“We are facing lots of challenges right now with political discussions about internal combustion engines, diesel and future CO2 regulations said VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie) head of economic policy and climate protection,” Martin Koers at the recent CEE Eastern European Automotive Forum organised by Adam Smith Conferences in Prague.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“Although we have lots of discussion and although the newspapers are full of some issues, on the other side manufacturers are very successful. We produce now more than 10m cars abroad [and] 5.7m cars in Germany. That means in contrast to other nations going abroad and producing at the same time in your own market, is not a counter-direction. It goes hand-in-hand actually.
“It is huge growth rates. We are exporting 70% of our production – most [of it] goes to the UK – second the US – after that the rest. Having open markets is a key challenge.
“If you talk about the UK, all the discussions about Brexit and the danger that comes with that – UK is the biggest export market for Germany – we face a problem. We have to fight for open markets.”
Koers added he recognised the need for “political regulation,” but this had to be undertaken with the criteria of sustainability, citing the ever-tightening rules surrounding CO2 emissions which will see a limit of 95g/100km imposed by 2021.
“Pressure on the European car industry is very strong,” noted Koers. “Although the car is more efficient, the absolute amount of CO2 is not reduced – that is not the fault of the car industry. We have 250m cars in stock in Europe. In Germany we have around 50m cars in stock and the regulation is only for new cars – therefore we ask for better regulation.”
The VDA head of economic policy also insisted the advent of electric vehicles would require far greater attention to infrastructure issues in order not to simply clog up transport systems.
“Electromobility in itself is not perfect – it [depends] where the energy comes from,” he said. “We have to talk about infrastructure – if cars end up in a traffic jam – if you want e-mobility you need infrastructure. The uptake of electromobility depends on the uptake of infrastructure.
“We have to get new product into the market, but the politicians have to find where the infrastructure comes from. We need competition between technologies [while] there is lots of research going on in Germany how to produce CO2-neutral sales from renewable energies.”
“Our Chancellor [Angela Merkel] said the challenges for Germany are strongly [voiced] in the automotive industry. ICE’s will still be needed for decades.”
A recent study by the Ifo Institute showed in Germany around 600,000 of today’s industrial jobs depend directly or indirectly on the internal combustion engine.
