NIMAK - Auto Focus 2021

Crises are fire accelerants – but in the best sense, they are also drivers of innovation. Everything that was utopian yesterday is now being addressed, such as hydrogen-powered aircraft at Airbus. We are convinced that the car is reinventing itself, taking the car industry with it. This does not include larger SUVs, but favours vehicle concepts that meet people‘s needs, with attractive city models and variable body concepts as an answer to increased leisure time; cars that are fun again, vehicles that adapt to the dynamically changing requirements of customers and are once again the right size for parking in the car parks of our cities. Tomorrow‘s factories must be just as adaptable, no longer reacting statically but highly dynamically to these demands. At the same time, sustainability – and ideally climate neutrality – are demanded of these new factories. These challenges can only be met with innovative concepts and new automation solutions. Together with our new subsidiary NIMAK, we are looking forward to this exciting role as a supplier of systems and components for production lines. Olaf Tünkers Devastating forest fires in California, a record hurricane season with 28 storms in the Atlantic and an unseasonably warm month of October in Germany emphasize the fact that climate change can no longer be in doubt. Against this background, the ban on diesel and petrol cars from 2035 in California is only logical. In Germany, where forest dieback is omnipresent, the Prime Ministers of the „car states“ of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, Messrs. Söder and Kretschmer, are also in favour of phasing out combustion-engine vehicles from 2035. The emission standards set by the EU Commission from 2025 onwards will not be met with internal combustion engines, so the turnaround in the automotive industry is unstoppable, at least in Europe. Opinions differ about whether the electric car is the best and only solution for combating the climate catastrophe, but the signal is clear – combustion-engine cars are set to disappear. At the same time, Covid-19 is demonstrating that our current mobility behaviour is not set in stone, but, as air traffic has shown, is fragile and comes to a virtual standstill with such disasters. Even the car – still the epitome of individual freedom for many people – is called into question when home offices and partially car-free city centres, as was recently the case in Jülich, significantly reduce its usefulness. CLIMATE CHANGE SOUNDS THE DEATH KNELL OF THE COMBUSTION-ENGINE CAR INTRO ...and fear of the future. Forecast: Loss of jobs in the German car industry due to e-mobility by 2030 at 25% market share for e-cars 40% 80% 74000 bis 80000 80000 bis 90000 107000 bis 125000 0,5 23,5 252,2 Between a spirit of optimism... Electric cars Plug-in hybrids New e-mobile registrations in Germany, in thousands Source: Fraunhofer IAO, 2018