Innovating our way out of the crisis
German automotive industry has record number of research projects
Frankfurt am Main, 13 February 2009. "Despite the tense economic situation, the German automotive industry is pushing forward when it comes to developments for the future," said Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). "Our manufacturers and suppliers will continue to expand their research activities this year," he added. New technologies and even more efficient and more environmentally friendly products could counteract the drop in sales triggered by the global financial crisis, Wissmann stressed, as the German Association for Research in Automotive Technology (FAT) published its annual research summary.
According to information from FAT, in the year 2008 it gave 9.3 million euro to automotive projects, and this record sum was in fact an additional increase on the already high levels of investment. Since the year 2003 the total expenditure on research projects had risen by 68 per cent from a level of 5.4 million euro. FAT says this research has been focusing mainly on light construction and the development of new powertrains. Last year 22 individual projects were realized in this area alone. "These figures prove that German vehicle manufacturers are working continually on developing lower-CO2 vehicles, which means they are going on the offensive in the field of climate protection," Wissmann said. Another research focus is the topic of safety. For example, new driver assistance systems have been developed that make driving safer.
The German Association for Research in Automotive Technology is an amalgamation of more than 50 important German companies in the automotive industry, including all the passenger car and commercial-vehicle manufacturers, along with numerous suppliers. Together with a number of renowned cooperation partners it works on projects where research is jointly defined and financed. The partners include the Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), Industrial Joint Research (Industrielle Gemeinschaftsforschung, IGF) of the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMWI), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Research Association of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Eisen und Metall verarbeitenden Industrie e.V. (association of the iron and metalworking Industry, AVIF). "Bundling financial resources allows comprehensive projects with a high proportion of basic research to carried out, particularly in times of economic difficulty," the VDA president stated. The great intensity of the research was a good sign for future success in the markets, "because it is our goal to emerge from the crisis stronger than others."