Germany’s car industry crisis - this is what may fix it

Car-making makes up about a fifth of Germany 's manufacturing output.

Industry employs 780,000 people directly and supports millions of other jobs.

Wolfsburg factory is capable of building 870,000 cars a year, but by 2023 it was making just 490,000 .

All of the Big Three saw their pre-tax profits fall by a third in the first nine months of 2024 .

EU and European governments determined to phase out petrol and diesel cars over the next decade .

Manufacturers have had little choice but to invest tens of billions of Euros on developing electric models and building new production lines.

Electric cars do now make up a significant share of all cars sold 13.6% in the EU and 19.6% . In Germany itself, the sudden removal of generous subsidies for electric car buyers in late 2023 actually contributed to a dramatic 27% fall in sales of all electric cars within the country last year .

The Big Three have all seen sales fall recently in 2023 .

VW 's China sales were down 9.5% on the previous year , Mercedes-Benz's by 7% and BMW 's by 13.4% . Their combined share of the Chinese market has shrunk as well to 18.7% , from a peak of 26.2% in 2019 .