German car industry celebrates booming business as major challenges loom

The German car industry will likely book record sales in 2018, but a whole range of challenges makes prospects for future business uncertain, the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) says in a press release. Tougher car emissions standards in the EU, the ongoing dieselgate scandal, high levels of investment in e-mobility, and looming trade wars with important buyer countries pose a series of problems “for the short, medium, and long term that are decisive for the future of our industry,” the new VDA head, Bernhard Mattes, said at the association’s biannual press conference. “We need a stable government in Germany that can deal with these challenges and make its industrial policy positions heard in the EU and around the world,” he added. With an estimated 16.7 million cars out of a total of 86 million that will likely be sold across the globe in 2018, German carmakers build more vehicles than ever before, and one percent more than in 2017. Over 11 million German cars are manufactured abroad and another 5.5 million in domestic factories, 76 percent of which are then exported. The German car industry employs 832,000 people, the VDA says.

Read the press release in German here.

See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers and the article Economy minister Altmaier calls for mobility transition push for background.