Research and Development
Automotive industry is the investment leader
In 2021, German automotive companies invested €45.2bn in research and development worldwide - making them global leaders. Manufacturers and suppliers will continue to use their investments in the future to push ahead with the green transformation with all their might.
In 2021, German automotive companies invested €45.2bn in research and development worldwide - making them global leaders. Manufacturers and suppliers will continue to use their investments in the future to push ahead with the green transformation with all their might.
The transformation of the German automotive industry is in full swing, the industry is on the way to digital sustainable mobility of the future. In order to promote developments in fields such as autonomous driving, data-driven business models, digitized and sustainable production and the switch to alternative drives, investments in research and development (R&D) are of crucial importance.
Every year, the European Commission publishes "The EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard" in which the world's strongest R&D companies are compared on the basis of their R&D investments as part of a competition analysis. Evaluations by the VDA of the associated data set of the 2022 edition show that the global research and development investments by German automotive companies in 2021 increased by 6% compared to the previous year and amounted to €45.2bn.
Internationally, automotive companies with German headquarters account for 33% of global R&D investments in the industry. In other words: in 2021, every third euro invested by the automotive industry worldwide in major future issues came from German companies. At EU level, the budgets of German manufacturers and suppliers even accounted for 76% of the research and development investments made by European automotive companies worldwide in 2021.
Transformational focus on investments
The massive investments by the German automotive industry show our determination to turn the transformation into an international success story. The German automotive industry supports the climate goals and wants to make climate-neutral mobility a reality as quickly as possible. We are drivers of transformation.Hildegard MüllerVDA President
While Germany remains by far the leader in global investment in automotive R&D, other countries such as the USA, China and India also significantly increased their commitment in the same year.
Germany’s Industrial Sector with Strongest Research
The automotive industry is also extremely innovative and strong in research within the German economy. According to Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, the R&D expenditures of the German-based automotive companies in 2021 amounted to a good €26bn. This means an increase of 7% compared to the previous year.
The investments by the automotive industry compared to other branches of the economy in Germany are also remarkable: With a share of 34% of total internal expenditures of the economic sector, it invested more than the chemical, pharmaceutical and mechanical engineering industries combined.
With a share of a good third of the internal R&D expenditure of the German economy, the automotive industry is an integral part of the German innovation system. The manufacturers of motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts make a significant contribution to the innovative power and sustainable competitiveness of the German economy.
Future expenditures in R&D
Between 2023 and 2027, German automobile manufacturers and suppliers will invest more than €250bn in R&D worldwide. The focus of the investments is on transformation, especially electromobility - including battery technology, autonomous driving and digitization. This means that companies are investing more than €50bn a year in R&D worldwide during this period.
The investments are also an expression of our will to remain internationally competitive. The German automotive industry wants to continue to build the most climate-friendly, safest, most efficient and most modern cars in the worldHildegard MüllerVDA President
In addition to the R&D investments from 2023 to 2027, another €130bn will flow from the German automotive industry worldwide, among other things, to the construction of new factories and the conversion of plants and their equipment.
Sources: EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard 2022 – Data Set (European Commission), own evaluation; facts – 2021 Survey on Research and Development of the German Business enterprise sector (Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft e.V.); VDA
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