The automotive industry
The automotive industry is one of the most important for Germany and Europe. Year-by-year, the automotive sector files thousands of patents. Scarcely any other industry is as large, as innovative or employs even nearly as many people.
Future challenges
According to the VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry), factors such as globalisation and urbanisation will result, around the world, in even higher levels of traffic, particularly in and around the new and existing megacities. Motoring must therefore be made
- ever safer,
- ever more efficient
- and ever more environmentally friendly.
Not only the greater use of electric and hybrid vehicles, but also automated and networked driving will, in future, play an increasingly important role. The number of car models will rise, with falling batch sizes. For this reason, motor-vehicle manufacturers must, in the future, be able to react as quickly as possible to new technical challenges and to modify their production appropriately.