BERLIN, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Manufacturers and suppliers in the German car industry are expected to increase their investment in research and development (R&D) to more than 250 billion euros (272 billion U.S. dollars) between 2023 and 2027, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) said on Monday.
In its previous calculation for the years 2022 to 2026, the VDA had only assumed R&D investment of 220 billion euros. According to the association, the focus remains on the transformation towards electric drive, as well as autonomous driving and digitalization.
"The huge investments made by the German automotive industry demonstrate our sector's determination to make the transformation an international success story," VDA President Hildegard Mueller said in a statement.
Global R&D investments by German automotive companies amounted to 45.2 billion euros in 2021, up 6 percent year-on-year. With this, Germany accounted for 33 percent of total automotive R&D investment worldwide, and as much as 76 percent in Europe.
Germany's car industry also "plays an outstanding role" in terms of the country's total R&D investment, VDA stressed. Almost half of all investment made by German companies worldwide were made by the car sector in 2021. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar) ■
