#13: Trump, Davos and the impact on Automotive

The Januar brings along some substantial changes in the political landscape which were not been expected in that way. This affects also the Automotive landscape - we will have an investigation what it means - and how Decision-Takers can act.

#1: What has changed?

The shift in U.S. politics away from green sustainability toward fossil energy is gaining significant momentum. Additionally, the "America First" policy drives efforts to enhance the U.S.'s attractiveness through announced tax cuts, reduced bureaucracy, and potential import tariffs on European products—likely including vehicles. Meanwhile, the diminishing relevance of China for Western automotive companies is expected to persist.

#2: Forecasting the Automotive Future

The USA dominates most likely not the technology of the Car Business itself but for sure the Digital Ecosystem around. Major Software and Hardware players are pushing with massive investments and Headcount the RoboTaxi Business and with their efforts in automation, e.g. Humanoid Robots als the Production efficiency.

NEXT GENERATION Automotive Cluster to be in the USA?

Where is Europe in that Game? Europe seems stagnating and overruled and what I also saw in the last year, many Decision Makers have lost their positive spirit.

Europe Players: push investments & welcome "Excellence" to catch up

From an European perspective, players and decision-makers must strongly drive a strategic direction, foster collaboration with universities and start-up hubs, and most important - Top Talents and a clear Leadership focusing innovation, create something new and foster collaboration.

#3: Snapshot

• Green-Tech and Electric Drive will be less important from an US-perspective - this affects the production, R&D as well as sales-Market perspective - Players with high focus on that will have less volumes and therefore lower margins; selling the less-demanded E-Cars in Countries outside China and now also USA will be challenging in the next years
• Conditions to do Business in USA will be better - in lower taxes, less energy prices and less bureacracy - strenghtening the US footprint might me sense for many players
• Digital and Customer-centric Solutions are getting more and more important
• Talents - especially experienced ones in Key-Tech-Areas - are rare and Mission-critical. In the near future, let's say some years, it will be the Availability of Talent who is deciding of single locations make sense

#4: Key Questions for Decision-Makers

In our globalized world, Leaders need to optimize their global footprint across different perspectives:

• Where is the best location to do certain things?
• Where are the markets?
• Where can different stenghts be utilized in the Best way?
• How do you get Talents and keep them?
• How does your M&A-Strategy look like?
• How can I orchestrate the single locations towards one goal and Leadership-Model?

Conclusions:

There are many opportunities - and the individual situation of each player is quite different. The speed o Changes has been evolveved. Let's start...