and seized on by the automakers’ association ACEA.
ACEA say the current crisis is threefold in nature: financial, economic and structural:
– Financial: drastically limited access to credit; and high costs of credits if available, both for the manufactures, their suppliers and for potential buyers of cars and trucks;
– Economic: a dramatic drop in demand for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles;
– Structural: low margins due to an increasingly complex and diverse product portfolio; and an increasingly pressing demand to adapt manufacturing, logistics, vehicles and R&D to meet environmental expectations.
The report says the automotive industry is the prime mover of the European economy: around one in ten jobs in Europe depends directly or indirectly on the automotive sector, the industry is the largest investor in innovation and R&D, and is a formidable export force.
