After the mobility summit with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday, the Association of the German Automotive Industry (VDA) has now presented its answer to the challenges of climate, environmental and industrial policy discussed with the government.

Only if Europe and Germany succeed in maintaining the importance of their industry will it also be possible "to actively shape politics globally in our interest, with our values ​​and our claim for an ambitious climate policy," said VDA President Hildegard Müller.

The German automotive industry has clearly committed itself to the climate goals, the transformation towards electromobility and the large investments required for this.

"The more successful we are, the more we motivate other countries to follow our path," said Müller.

Tobias Piller

Editor in Business.

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On behalf of the automotive industry, however, the VDA President also made far-reaching demands on politicians in Brussels and Berlin: It is not enough to just always name goals for rapid change.

"If you set time-consuming goals, the state must act accordingly quickly," said Müller.

Therefore, the government must now ensure that CO2-free energy is available in larger quantities.

The expansion of the network for charging stations for electric cars is also critical.

There are none of these for trucks.

Müller reproached the EU Commission in Brussels for striving to develop perfected "gold standards" there, which tended to limit the competitive and innovative power of industry.

An example of this are the plans for the new Euro 7 exhaust gas guidelines for combustion engines, which are intended to prescribe demanding targets for the test conditions for circumstances that are only 5 percent relevant in driving practice.

There is a lack of money for investments

On the other hand, there was a lack of financial resources that would have to be invested in investments in e-mobility.

Europe must now ensure raw material and energy agreements, as diversified as possible.

The example of the United States, with investments of 1500 billion dollars in the technology of the future, shows how much industrial policy can unleash.

Applied to the gross domestic product of the EU, this American program would correspond to 1,200 billion euros in Europe.

Müller also responded to the criticism on the fringes of the Federal Chancellor's mobility summit that on Tuesday too much was said about cars and not enough about other modes of transport: "Here a contrast is being constructed that I think is unfortunate." Of course it is also in the interests of the automotive industry, when freight transport is no longer being shifted from rail to road, but more to the rails, or when talking about the networking of means of transport.

However, these topics would have to be discussed separately from the problem of the transformation of the automotive industry.

For 2023, the VDA expects only a slow recovery in production and registration figures in Germany.

An increase in car production in Germany by 6 percent to 3.7 million is expected.

However, this would still be a long way from the pre-crisis level.

More than 5 million cars were last manufactured in Germany in 2018.

In terms of sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, the German automotive industry expects an increase of 5 percent to 11.8 million vehicles sold in 2023, but this is still well below the level before the crisis.

The expected development for the United States is similar, with an increase of 4 percent to 14.2 million vehicles.

In China, where the car market has already fully recovered from the crisis,