Pitfalls in the Green Transition in the Automotive Industry

Abstract

The entire automotive industry is in the middle of structural changes. During the last decade several parallel events happened. There are some, which are positive developments, like the technological revolution, where the digital tools and latest achievements help the industry for more sustainable operation. However, the stronger role of AI gives much tasks for implementation.Nevertheless, there were some crisis, like the Covid 19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war where the global supply chain was disrupted and hit hard the industry.Overall, there is the climate-crisis, where there is a common political will to reach“zero-net” industry and society.There are several different solutions in the world, like in US and in China. EU chosethe closure of production of the combustion engine vehicles and chose the single battery technology, while in other part of the world technological neutrality and strong system of incentives were introduced. The main question is, how the European automotive industry could stay competitive and profitable in the global market? Is there any danger of over regulation and where are the possible pitfalls in the green and digital transition?This Master Thesis was intentionally designed to conduct quantitative analysis in a wider approach. Therefore, I used the concept of Hypothesis, Dependant Variable and Independent Variable. The result of this Master Thesis is limited to nine companies and individual qualitative answers, which gave a very good insight.The final result of the research is there are several fragmentations in the greentransition and the possibility of over regulation has increased in the past years. The hypothesis is confirmed and the Octogon model (that is created is initial model for there search) is far away to get into balance. Less and more coherent legislation, focusing more on mobility concepts, and better cooperation among the different actors could be the solution.In order to able to analyse the hypothesis with a significant sample for being able to conduct statistical analysis and understand the statistical significance of the variables,a broader research with number of 50 participants suggested.There will be existing call in Horizon Europe programme in 2024. It could be an excellent opportunity to realise a more detailed research.