CAPTION: Stefan Bratzel, founder and director of the Center of Automotive Management (CAM). (picture alliance/dpa/Matthias Balk)
Car expert Stefan Bratzel believes that German manufacturers are increasingly falling behind the competition from China when it comes to innovation.
The innovative strength of Chinese car manufacturers has grown year on year and is now greater than that of German manufacturers, warned Bratzel at a car conference in the eastern German city of Zwickau. "This is a critical situation for Germany as a business location," he said. In order to be sustainable, manufacturers and suppliers in Germany would have to be at least as innovative as their cars are more expensive than those of their rivals.
According to Bratzel, who heads the Center of Automotive Management in Bergisch Gladbach in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, car manufacturing is increasingly going to become a software business. Manufacturers and suppliers in Germany are struggling with this. He predicted a tougher price war when it comes to e-cars. However, the goal of the current German coalition government of at least 15 million fully electric cars by 2030 will clearly not be achieved as things stand at present. In view of the trend of new registrations to date, 7 to 8 million battery-electric cars in 2030 is more realistic.
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