The European car industry is too dependent on deliveries from other regions of the world. That is what the CEO of Bosch thinks. The chip shortage, among other things, clearly exposes this problem, according to him.
Europe is highly dependent on the production and extraction of raw materials elsewhere in the world. This certainly also applies to the European car industry. That is a problem, says retiring Bosch CEO Franz Fehrenbach. In conversation with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he points out that the chip shortage and also the supply of raw materials for batteries make this clear. “We have become too dependent on other regions. Of course that has to change.”
Fehrenbach understands how it could have come to this. According to him, it simply has to do with costs. European production is relatively expensive and in some cases we have no choice but to import natural raw materials. What can be produced here should be done on a larger scale. “Change is needed. The automotive industry is slowly but surely starting to question how to proceed with the supply of raw materials, especially for batteries.”
Some raw materials will have to continue to come from outside Europe in any case, but the production of batteries and microchips is something that can be used more widely within Europe. Some car manufacturers are already taking steps in this area. For example, Stellantis is working on European battery factories and Volvo, Renault, Nissan and the Volkswagen Group are also investing in this. Bosch itself opened a European chip factory earlier this year and recently research by the American research agency Gartner showed that car manufacturers are going to focus more on their own chip development.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl