Multidimensional Approach

Excerpt

It's not only since the International Motor Show (IAA) that it's become fashionable to bid a wistful farewell to our traditional automakers and their suppliers. Even the German weekly Der Spiegel has diagnosed the misery in a recent article entitled Engine Failure (Issue 44, October 2019). For what it's worth, this way suppliers such as ElringKlinger, ZF and Brose at least make it to the pages of the magazine. And "apropos to nothing", we also learn that such companies are headquartered in the boondocks of Swabia, Franconia and other locales hopelessly far away from Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. It warrants pointing out that what some see as a disadvantaged site is actually a competence cluster stretching from Westphalia, a mecca for plug manufacturers, to "Silicon Saxony." The fact that the (German) automotive industry will have to reinvent itself is not a subject of controversy. Still, it would be reckless to suggest that German industry has already forfeited a stake in the future. …