Europe's auto industry in the crisis: Who can still tear the wheel around?

Europe's auto industry in the crisis: Who can still tear the wheel around?

Longyan, Fujian, China - The European automotive industry faces serious challenges. According to a report by Acredia and Allianz Trade, weak growth of only 1.5 percent in Europe will be forecast for 2025. In contrast, the car market in China grows by remarkable 4.0 percent. These developments result not only from the increasing production costs in Europe, but also from an innovative deficit and increasing customs conflicts, as the report notes. In addition, the European market for electric vehicles (EVS) shows a worrying decline, while China shines with an impressive growth of 40 percent in the EV segment in 2024. In order to remain competitive, Meierschitz demands from European car manufacturers to limit their models to five to six powerful hybrid and electric vehicles and to invest massively in battery production in order to reduce the dependency on China, according to the report from 2400.at.

China's charging infrastructure: quick growth, but not yet enough

Despite the rapid growth of the electric automotive industry in China, the associated charging infrastructure is still inadequate. There are currently over 5 million charging points, but that's not enough to cover the need for the growing fleet of 16.2 million NEV (New Energy Vehicles), as Henrik Bork from next-mobility.de reports. The Chinese government also takes measures to fix this deficit. Increased efforts have been announced since the beginning of the year, especially in rural areas, to increase the number of charging stations and to achieve the desired rate of 1: 1 between vehicles and charging points. This could lead to a need of up to 63 million other charging stations in the next few years.

Companies such as Volkswagen invest significant sums to advance the expansion of the charging infrastructure in China, and have already set up over 1,250 supercharging stations. At the same time, international oil companies such as Shell and total energy are on the market to expand their own charging station networks. This commitment shows that even with an extreme growth market, such as China, there is pressure on the charging infrastructure to ensure a nationwide supply. The automobile manufacturers and politics are faced with the challenge of creating a suitable environment that promotes both the latest technologies and can strengthen production and innovative strength in Europe.