Digitalisation 18/08/2021

One billion for the future of the automotive industry

The Expert Committee on the Future Fund Automotive Industry has presented its recommendations and identified three key areas: regional cooperation, digitalization and production technology. The state agency e-mobil BW played a key part in drafting the recommendations and preparing the report.

The Expert Committee on the Future Fund Automotive Industry presented its recommendations for shaping the Future Fund at the 6^th summit meeting of the “Concentrated Action Mobility”. Over the past few months, the expert committee developed recommendations for the use of the funding. The expert committee names three funding priorities: Regional collaborations, the digitalization of the automotive industry and production technology.

Funding priorities of the Future Fund

Based on the recommendations, the federal government has specified the funding priorities of the Future Fund:

• 340 million euros for an overall transfer concept: regional transformation networks will be funded to bring together the local relevant players and develop regional transformation strategies. The funding announcement has already been published. In addition, transformation hubs with a focus on specific topics and value chains are to be funded. This is to increase the knowledge transfer , especially to SMEs. In so-called transformation projects, the knowledge gained by SMEs can be put into practice.

• 340 million euros for the digitalization of the automotive industry: The main topics are operating systems and e-architecture, software and systems engineering, safeguarding/validation, digital twins and virtualization. In addition, start-ups in the field of digitalization of the automotive industry will receive targeted support from the EXIST program of the federal ministry for economic affairs.
• 320 million euros to strengthen sustainable value chains: The focus is on promoting circular economy and enabling SMEs for the production of electric and fuel cell drive systems.. A first call for funding in the field of electric mobility has already been launched by the federal ministry for economic affairs .
• Developing new training concepts to also prepare employees best for the transformation.

About the Expert Committee

The establishment of the Expert Committee was decided at the 4^th summit meeting of the “Concentrated Action Mobility” on November 17, 2020. The objective was to propose funding recommendations for the structure of the Automotive Industry Future Fund and to advise the German federal government. The panel is composed of twelve experts from various fields of future mobility. e-mobil BW president Franz Loogen was appointed to the panel by federal minister Peter Altmaier as one of the two representatives of the “National Platform Future of Mobility” (NPM). The state agency e-mobil BW was actively involved in the funding priorities of regional cooperation and the digitalization of the automotive industry.

The Future Fund Automotive Industry complements the measures taken by the economic stimulus package and is intended to address the medium- to long-term challenges which faces the automotive industry in its transformation towards a sustainable and digital mobility. It comprises a billion euros for the years 2021 to 2025.

Source: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs