Germany is concerned about one of its most important industrial sectors: there are few products that stand for “made in Germany” as much as the millions of cars that BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen put on the streets every year. In addition, there are the many suppliers to the car manufacturers, from global corporations such as Bosch, Continental and ZF to large and small medium-sized companies throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands of often well-paid jobs depend on the companies.
But with the increasingly clear departure from the internal combustion engine, the markets in the automotive industry are being redistributed – and in the new automotive world, both the German car manufacturers and their domestic suppliers are laggards. In all likelihood, cars in the future will largely be battery-electric.