Icon: enlarge
Production at Porsche: China back to pre-crisis level
Photo: Jan Woitas / DPA
The feared catastrophe did not materialize, Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler recently made profits again.
But there were also losers from the corona pandemic in the auto industry - many small and medium-sized suppliers lost a lot of money due to the loss of sales as a result of the shutdown in spring, which is missing for investments in 2021.
The multinational industry giants, on the other hand, are benefiting from the economic recovery in China, for example, where car purchases have already returned to normal.
The much more regionally positioned suppliers have no chance.
In Europe, car production is still a long way from normalizing.
According to the industry association VDA, around 30 percent fewer cars left the factory buildings in Germany by the end of October than in the same period of 2019. A deficit that could not be made up by the end of the year - given the measures taken to combat the high number of Covid 19 infections.
Tremendous sums of money required
In addition, the rules of the game have changed massively: 2020 will go down in the history of the automotive industry as the year of electromobility.
Despite the difficult framework conditions, manufacturers are forced to make large sums of money available for structural changes.
"If you don't tackle change with power, you run the risk of not being allowed to play along in the future," explains Fabian Brandt, automotive expert at the consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
For this reason, 2021 poses even greater challenges for car manufacturers than the last one: “The low return on electrically powered cars will be reflected in the balance sheets of companies.
Many markets, especially in Southern Europe, continue to weaken, «explains the expert.
The investments for the new technological beginning (software, electronics, autonomous driving) required enormous financial resources, which financiers preferred to invest in innovative start-ups from Silicon Valley.
Icon: The mirror