The IAA motor show in Munich this week highlighted the immense pressures facing Germany\u2019s auto industry as it grapples with European Union climate policies and an aggressive Chinese push into the electric vehicle (EV) market.<\/p>\n
On Monday, September 8th, Volkswagen CEO Thomas Sch\u00e4fer presented the company\u2019s new EV line-up and sought to convince his audience that the Wolfsburg-based giant can regain its footing after years of sliding sales and market share.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set the standards \u2026 We are attacking,\u201d Sch\u00e4fer said<\/a>, according to media reports, but participants at the auto show were not impressed. The model offensive is right, but \u201cit\u2019s too late,\u201d one visitor muttered, while another suggested the Chinese \u201care technologically far ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n The combined share of German carmakers across their three core markets\u2014Europe, the United States, and China\u2014has fallen below 20% for the first time in decades.<\/p>\n With profits under pressure, Volkswagen is planning to cut 35,000 jobs<\/a> by 2030. In Germany, the auto sector has already shed more than 50,000 jobs over the past year, according to the EY consulting firm<\/p>\n On another stage at the IAA show, BYD, China\u2019s largest EV maker, unveiled its Seal 6 DM-i Touring, designed \u201cspecifically for Europe and especially for Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n A company representative promised to grow \u201cat autobahn speed,\u201d while announcing plans to triple its German dealerships to 300 by 2026.<\/p>\n The message was one of confidence, in stark contrast to VW\u2019s embattled tone, according to Berliner Zeitung.<\/p>\n Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who opened<\/a> the show on Tuesday, September 9th, echoed industry frustration with Brussels.<\/p>\n While stopping short of rejecting the EU\u2019s ban on new combustion engine sales from 2035, he called for \u201csmart, reliable, and flexible European regulation\u201d and warned against \u201cunilateral political commitments to specific technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n Bavaria\u2019s prime minister Markus S\u00f6der was blunter: \u201cThis combustion engine ban is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Their intervention reflects growing alarm that the EU\u2019s green agenda risks crippling European manufacturers before they can catch up with their Chinese rivals.<\/p>\n Carmakers from VW to BMW and Mercedes complain that the 2035 deadline is \u201cnot realistic.\u201d<\/p>\n Stellantis, the U.S.-European conglomerate behind Jeep, Fiat, and Peugeot, has likewise urged a rethink, warning of massive job losses.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s IAA hosts 116 Chinese exhibitors, up sharply from 75 last year, with firms like XPeng and GAC joining BYD in staking their claim to Europe\u2019s future roads.<\/p>\n Not every EU member, however, views China\u2019s advance as a threat. Hungary has actively courted Asian investment, while maintaining its position as one of Europe\u2019s top manufacturers of German cars.<\/p>\n BMW will soon open its first all-electric plant in the eastern city of Debrecen, while BYD will start production<\/a> at its new electric-vehicle plant in southern Szeged by the end of this year.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s China-friendly strategy, coupled with generous subsidies, has turned the country into a rising hub for e-mobility. Budapest is reaping the benefits of the electric transition, writes<\/a> Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The IAA motor show in Munich this week highlighted the immense pressures facing Germany\u2019s auto industry as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-413441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115180693365692540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}