Automotive News Europe - September 2011 - 7

Q A
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MATTHIAS WISSMANN

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE

MARKETS

‘DECADE OF THE GERMANS’
VDA boss says 2011 is country’s best year ever for output and exports

erman automakers are enjoying a great year as car production, headcount and market share are on the rise at home and abroad. The forward momentum comes just as the German auto industry association (VDA) is readying to host the world’s biggest automotive show, the Frankfurt auto show. VDA President Matthias Wissmann recently met with Automotive News Europe Editor-in-Chief Harald Hamprecht in Berlin to talk about what he expects for the rest of the year.
What effect will the numerous world premieres at the Frankfurt show have on overall new-car sales?

medium term. Western Europe remains a stable market with a large volume. In 2010, new-car registrations were just under 13 million units. For the entire year, we expect a level of about 13 million new registrations. In the medium term, we expect further recovery and slight growth.
When will Russia overtake Germany as the largest market in Europe?

MEET THE BOSS

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Not this year and not in 2012, but in the medium term, Russia certainly has the potential for this.
How is production doing domestically?

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SEPTEMBER 2011

As our surveys continue to show, a large portion of the visitors come to Frankfurt because they intend to buy a new car in the six months after the show. And as far as production and exports go, the German auto industry is enjoying the best year in its history

In the first half of the year, German manufacturers built nearly 3 million cars domestically, an increase of 5 percent. German automakers are utilizing 89 percent of their capacity, compared with 84 percent last year. Suppliers are at 84 percent, up from 76 percent for the same period last year.
What is the prognosis for German output in the second half?

Former German Transport Minister Matthias Wissmann has been president of the German auto industry association (VDA) since June 2007. The 62-year-old lawyer has had a long career in politics. In 1975, he became a member of the national board of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) political party. A year later, he was the youngest person to be directly elected to the German Parliament. He served as deputy chairman of the CDU in the German state of BadenWuerttemberg from 1991 until starting with the VDA. Wissmann, who studied law, economics and political science at University of Tuebingen and the University of Bonn, Germany, continues to practice law with the international firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr.

What about the global market?

“In 2012, we expect a global market of more than 70 millions cars.”

The growth dynamic for domestic car production will slow somewhat over the course of the year, although it will remain at a high level. For all of 2011, we expect a domestic production volume of more than 5.9 million cars. That would top the current record of 5.7 million set in 2007.
What happens if you include German manufacturers’ foreign factories in the count?

In 2012, we expect a global market of more than 70 million cars. And we are assuming that German manufacturers will continue to gain importance due to their quality and innovative strength. There is, therefore, every indication that this will be the decade of the Germans.
How are exports shaping up?

In the first half of 2011, Germany’s new-car registrations climbed 10 percent to more than 1.6 million units. What do you expect for the entire year?

The German domestic car market is on a stable course. For the entire year, we expect 3.1 million units. To achieve this goal, an overall market growth of 2 percent is necessary in the second half of the year.
For more than half a century, Germany has been the largest single market in Europe. How will German and western European sales develop in the medium term?

Car production by German companies stood at 11.6 million cars in 2010, including more than 5.5 million units domestically and a little more than 6.1 million abroad.
How will the ranking change in 2011 and in the medium term?

In the first half of the year, we boosted exports by 6 percent to 2.3 million cars. That’s a new record. Incoming orders from abroad were up 13 percent for the first six months of the year. Our export prediction for 2011 is more than 4.5 million cars, and that would be another all-time high.
Where are those cars going?

In Germany, we expect between 3.1 million and 3.2 million new registrations in the

In all, we expect German manufacturers’ production in 2011, in Germany and abroad, to reach 12.5 million cars. About half of that volume, 5.9 million units, will be manufactured domestically. And globally, we can expect a market share of about 20 percent for our manufacturers.

Our export share in the euro zone has been stable at 32 percent, while exports to the rest of Europe have risen one-fifth to 31 percent. About 15 percent of our car exports go to North America, and this share has increased as well. About 11 percent of our cars are exported to China, and another 11 percent to the rest of the world. In both cases we have been able to increase our exports. ■

❙ For the complete Matthias Wissmann interview go to europe.autonews.com/wissmannexecedition ❙ 7

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Automotive News Europe - September 2011

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