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The automotive industry is facing the greatest change in its history. Critics say that many German companies could be too late on the road to electromobility. Others have understood the signs of the times.
Old and new still run side by side at the automotive supplier Witzenmann in Remchingen near Karlsruhe. Here the modern production of car parts under laboratory-like conditions, there the loud squeaking and hissing in the production of exhaust components.
The medium-sized company from the northern Black Forest is used to change. Originally founded in 1854 to produce jewelry, the Baden company switched to shower hoses in 1885. This was followed in the 1990s by the production of combustion engine components. For decades, the company made a good living from the fossil car industry. In 2015, the management then decided on a comprehensive transformation. Significantly earlier than many others in the industry.
“A large transformation process”
“Our company is in a major transformation process,” says Managing Director Philip Paschen. It was understood early on that combustion engine technology had no future. “Our products have to find a place in new applications. For example in electric vehicles or in the hydrogen economy,” says Paschen.
That is why they are now producing pressure accumulators for electric cars, for example. The goal is “to exist in the post-fossil world”. However, the transformation does not only mean the production of other parts. Digitization in the company must also be promoted, the employees must be taken along.
With printer accumulators for e-cars, the Witzenmann company is banking on a future without fossil fuels.
The leading German industry in danger
“The automotive industry is Germany’s leading industry,” says Ina Schaefer from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. She is co-chair of the expert group on the transformation of the automotive industry, which the Federal Ministry of Economics set up. “The automotive industry is so important for Germany because there are so many jobs also depend on small and medium-sized supplier companies,” says the scientist.
It’s also about jobs that may be lost if a company doesn’t keep up with the times. “I see it as a real danger that we are too late in terms of transformation,” says Schaefer. This is also due to the fact that they were pioneers in combustion engine technology. “Business has been very, very good with the combustion engine in recent years.” The sales figures and sales would have been right. “If that’s the case, then of course the companies don’t have any external pressure to transform themselves.”
Tesla ahead of Volkswagen
The production of cars in Germany has been falling rapidly since 2016: from 5.75 million cars produced to 3.4 million most recently. One reason for this was the corona pandemic. When it comes to electromobility, the Germans are even in danger of falling behind. In 2022, the Tesla Model Y was the best-selling electric car in the country. Volkswagen’s ID.4 only followed in fourth place.
Schaefer names other problems: “Especially when we look at the area of software and infotainment, we find that many of the large German vehicle manufacturers are making deals with the large American IT companies because they themselves do not have the software expertise in certain areas.”
Together through change
In Baden-Württemberg, companies from the automotive industry have now joined forces to shape change together. As an expert in digital transformation, Bernhard Kölmel from Pforzheim University is supporting the project. “The supplier industry is the dominant sector in the region. More than ten percent of all jobs are directly related to the automobile,” says Kölmel. In the Northern Black Forest transformation network, the aim is to help companies “design visions of the future, derive strategies from them and then, in the next step, initiate future projects”.
Witzenmann in Remchingen has already taken this path and is happy about the further support from the network: “We can learn a lot from each other,” says Managing Director Paschen, “or encourage each other to get through this big change “.