DIE FAMILIENUNTERNEHMER
Panel discussion at Deutsche Bank Wuppertal
The future of the car – visions in automotive engineering
2014 was a record year for the German automotive industry:
Volkswagen enjoyed record sales figures in the 2014 business year. VW has never sold as many cars in China as during this period. The core workforce in the German plants includes 784,000 employees, 23,000 more than in the previous year. German cars are in demand like never before.
Nevertheless, the industry faces major challenges and visions such as globalisation, digitalisation and automated driving.
In front of more than 140 guests, these scenarios were discussed in a lively and controversial manner by a prominent panel at the invitation of DIE FAMILIENUNTERNEHMER. In addition to the main sponsor Deutsche Bank, the sponsors included IsoProfil. In this context, Peter Cöllen, managing director and shareholder of Vorwerk und Sohn, criticised the price pressure that the automotive industry exerts on its suppliers. Natalie Mekelburger, Chair of the Management Board of Coroplast F. Müller GmbH & Co.KG since 2006, gave the discussion a different twist by predicting that it will not be the big who eat the small, but the fast who eat the slow.
Hans Remsing, Head of the Automotive and Engineering expert team at Deutsche Bank AG, considered the situation less dramatic and pointed out that everyone in the manufacturing chain is indispensable.
Dr. Wolfgang Schneider, member of the Board of Management of Ford-Werke GmbH and Vice President of Ford of Europe, noted with regret that the major developments and impulses, particularly in the field of automated driving, no longer come from the automotive industry but rather from companies outside the sector, such as “Google” and “Tesla”.
Thomas Aurich, Director of Communications at Delphi Deutschland GmbH, did not want to let this stand entirely and emphasised that the automotive industry and its suppliers are further ahead in automated driving than is publicly known and are also working to make traffic flow more smoothly again with the help of digitalisation.
There was agreement that talented minds with new ideas are needed – not only mechanical engineers, but above all computer scientists and electronics engineers as well as start-up entrepreneurs. In this context, Dr. Schneider pointed out that there are two great think tanks in the world: Silicon Valley and the German Mittelstand.
The event was moderated by Franz W. Rother, deputy editor-in-chief of Wirtschaftswoche. The welcome speeches were given by Kai Giesel, Spokesman of the Management Wuppertal/Sauerland, Deutsche Bank, and Dieter L. Schmidt, board member of DIE FAMILIENUNTERNEHMER. The closing words were given by Dieter Sander, board member of DIE FAMILIENUNTERNEHMER.
Photo, from left to right: Kai Giesel, Dieter L. Schmidt, Natalie Mekelburger, Dieter Sander, Peter Cöllen
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Contact person
DIE FAMILIENUNTERNEHMER in the Bergisches Land region:
Dieter Sander
IsoProfil
GmbH & Co. KG
Derken 12
42327 Wuppertal
+49 202 730043-0
+49 171 9990080
dieter.sander@isoprofil.de