When it comes to electric cars, the German car industry is dependent on China. It doesn't have to stay that way. When it comes to innovation, Chinese manufacturers are reaching their limits. German car manufacturers are catching up.
Massive drops in profits, canceled forecasts, thousands of job cuts - one piece of bad news after another is currently coming from the German auto industry. Like it has been for years now. But there is hope. If the German manufacturers do not let up in their efforts, they could be at the forefront of technology again in the foreseeable future.
After years of weakness in innovations in the field of electromobility, local car manufacturers have now bottomed out, according to industry expert Stefan Bratzel. “Things have been getting better again for a year or two,” he said in an interview with ntv.de. "Chinese manufacturers are still better, but things are no longer improving for them." Bratzel's Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach regularly evaluates the innovative strength of the most important car manufacturers. Innovations that can be ordered for end customers in at least one relevant car market such as Europe, the USA or China are taken into account.
German manufacturers are catching up. The biggest winner this year is Mercedes-Benz, which moved up three places in the ranking to fourth place. Geely from China continues to take first place. According to the study, the most innovative German electric car manufacturer is the VW Group in second place. With 24 series innovations, the Wolfsburg-based company brought by far the most innovations onto the market in the first half of the year.
Mercedes achieved its high level of innovation with only 14 very high-quality individual innovations. "Mercedes scores, among other things, with the long ranges of its models in various segments (EQS, VLE) and enables bi-directional charging functions, similar to BMW," explains the research institute. BMW takes fifth place. The biggest loser is currently Tesla, the former electric car pioneer slipped from sixth to eleventh place.
The manufacturers' innovations have recently focused primarily on range, charging power and consumption as well as the electric ecosystem. BYD is a pioneer in fast charging; the industry leader from China achieves a charging output of up to 1500 kW via a single charging port with its Denza Z9GT. “The European version charges from 10 to 97 percent in around nine minutes, even at minus 30 degrees Celsius,” the researchers explain.
In terms of consumption, however, the VW ID.3 Neo, for example, scored highly. “The three German manufacturers are now doing quite well technologically,” says Bratzel. The industry expert expects the long-awaited consolidation in China in the next two years; after all, Chinese manufacturers will also have to make money at some point. The problem for German car manufacturers is the high location costs, and they also have to become faster.
Only then can the Germans translate their innovative strength into sales more effectively. “Chinese manufacturers are increasingly showing that they can translate their technological strength into market shares, now also in Germany,” warns Bratzel. "A doubling of new electric car registrations is a clear warning signal for established manufacturers."
According to the analysis, Chinese manufacturers continued to dominate global sales of electric cars in the first half of the year, led by BYD with 867,000 new cars, followed by Tesla (838,000), Geely (571,000) and SAIC (540,000). The VW Group took fifth place with 438,000 purely electric cars, while BMW took seventh place with 204,000 electric cars.
Although Mercedes sold significantly fewer electric vehicles at 113,000, it increased its sales by almost half. This shows that innovations are an early indicator of overall development, as Bratzel says. "At Mercedes-Benz, the leader in half-year innovation strength, the innovation boost is also accompanied by a significant increase in sales."
If German manufacturers now manage to reduce their costs and increase speed, the industry expert even sees a long-term opportunity to technically overtake their Chinese competitors again.
