A global downturn, technology shifts putting unprecedented pressure on automakers.
Business
Standard : Car executives are paid to be optimists, but
behind the pomp and salesmanship at the Frankfurt
International Motor Show this week lurked an unmistakable sense
of angst.
The
talk among industry insiders at the show, one of the auto industry's
biggest events, reflected the existential threats that carmakers
face.
The
European and global auto markets are in decline. Carmakers are
betting their futures on electric vehicles whose marketability is
untested. Manufacturers are under intense public and regulatory
pressure because of the role that vehicles play in climate change.
The global trade war has disrupted supply chains.
Even
auto shows are under threat. Many manufacturers scaled back their
presence in Frankfurt this year or skipped the show altogether.
Companies like Toyota and Fiat Chrysler decided the benefits didn't
justify the millions of euros it takes to put on a display.
"It's
an unprecedented situation we are in," said Wolf-Henning
Scheider, chief executive of ZF Friedrichshafen, a German
transmission maker that has an extensive network of factories in the
United States, Europe and China.
Mr.
Scheider noted that carmakers must invest vast sums in electric
vehicles and autonomous driving at the same time they are coping
with a trade war. "All these at the same time is new," Mr.
Scheider said in an interview. The Frankfurt show was as good a place
as any to find out how auto executives plan to survive the tsunami.
Here are some of the main takeaways.
Sustainability
has become a matter of survival
Protests
by environmental groups were especially intense this year, as
carmakers increasingly take the blame for climate change. Volkswagen
alone accounts for more than 1 percent of greenhouse gas emissions
worldwide, according to the company's own calculations.
This
week Greenpeace activists stood on the roofs of SUVs on display at
the Frankfurt exhibition grounds with signs that chided, “Climate
Killer.”
The
militant group Attac planned to blockade streets and bring traffic to
a standstill on Saturday, the day the show opens to the public.
Carmakers are desperate to show that they get the message. Ola
Källenius, chief executive of Daimler, said in Frankfurt that the
company's Mercedes-Benz factories will be carbon neutral next year.
