German car manufacturers only “administer past ideas” - opinion

German car manufacturers are “world champions in restoring the past”, but are not able to come up with new basic ideas for a radically changing world, writes Sebastian Matthes in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt. German engineers optimised the combustion engine to the last detail, and many car manufacturers “mainly administer past ideas” today. Companies like Tesla or Byton were in the process of re-inventing the car and “questioning all laws of the old mobility world”. The issues in the German car industry is but a harbinger for issues of the German economy in general, writes Matthes.

Read the opinion piece (behind paywall) in German here.

For background on the car industry, read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers and the CLEW dossier The digitalisation of the Energiewende.