OEM & Lieferant Ausgabe 2/2019 - OEM & Supplier 2/2019 by VEK Publishing

118 Editorial by Bernhard Mattes President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) The German automotive industry is determined to contribute to the achievement of climate change targets. To this end, automakers and suppliers are working on many new products and services that will allow them to offer compelling solutions for all mobility and transport requirements. However, it is also true that alternative drives only have their full CO 2 effect when fuelled by renewables. Themobility transition and energy transition are therefore two sides of the same coin. Our goal is to remain a leading player in global markets in the future. This is the only way for us to also safeguard jobs in Germany. To succeed, we need to tackle the challenges head on. And that is exactly what the German automotive industry is doing. Our companies – automakers and suppliers – are investing heavily in alternative drives. The new models emit less and less CO 2 . We are also striving for carbon neutrality throug- hout the entire value creation process – from development, production and sales through to vehicle use and recycling. Electric mobility – with purely battery-powered vehicles and plug-in hybrids – will be the focus of the transformation in the coming years. Rapidmarket penetration of electric vehicles is needed tomeet the EU’s very ambitious 2030 CO 2 fleet limits. Our automakers will quintuple their offering to more than 150 electric models by 2023. Every third patent worldwide in the area of electric mobility and hybrid drives co- mes from Germany. This shows that the German automotive industry is acting from a position of strength and is putting its weight behind electric mobility. This holds for both automakers and suppliers. The focus is on electric mobility, but we are not “shelving” all other options. We continue to work on alternative drives and fuels. These include climate-neutral e-fuels, CNG and hydrogen, to name just a few. Our companies are actively driving research and development. But the right policies must be put in place now in order for these technologies to gain market acceptance. This is not simply a question of us making every effort to ramp up a new kind of drive. It is also about politically and socially driven systemic change. The German automotive industry is ready and is making a strong contribution. VDA www.vda.de