China and the future of the German automotive industry: How can German manufacturers survive global competition?

Topic

The German automotive industry is at a decisive turning point. The rapid development in the areas of electrification and digitalisation as well as geopolitical tensions are accelerating the pace of change. China in particular, which has established itself as a leading player in the field of electromobility, is a major competitor. German manufacturers are faced with the challenge of developing the right strategies to survive in a market characterised by technological innovation and cost advantages. How can the growing competitive pressure from Chinese brands on the European market be overcome? Are new partnerships or increased local production in China the key to success? We will discuss these and other questions while looking at possible paths and prospects for the future of the German automotive industry. 

Program

The event consists of different impulse lectures followed by a discussion.  

The Global China Conversation #35 will be held in German.

Joerg Mull

Joerg Mull holds a doctorate in economics and has 33 years of experience in the automotive industry, 18 of which he spent in Asia. The first 11 years (1991 - 2002) Mull was employed by Daimler-Benz (today Mer-cedes-Benz), including in Singapore and Japan. The following 22 years Joerg Mull worked for Volkswagen AG, including 11 years in China and 10 years as Chief Financial Officer for the China region. During this time, Mull represented the interests of German industry in China for 8 years on the board of the Chamber of Commerce. In February 2024, Mull was appointed as an academic advisor for CeMEAS (Centre for Modern East Asian Studies) at the University of Goettingen. Since the end of August 2024, Joerg Mull has been in pre-retirement and lives in Isernhagen near Hanover and in Singapore, where his wife is from. 

Julian Hinz 

Julian Hinz is a Professor of International Economics at Bielefeld University and the head of the Research Center Trade Policy at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Previously, he was an assistant professor at Bielefeld University, head of the Kiel Institute’s Trade Policy Task Force, a visiting assistant professor at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) of the University of Düsseldorf, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Kiel Institute. In 2018–2019, he was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. He is an associate editor for the Review of World Economics. His work is at the intersection of international economics and data science, focusing on international trade and its connection with foreign policy, the spatial dimension of international trade, migration and finance, and related questions in applied econometrics.  

Felix Lee 

Felix Lee, born in Wolfsburg in 1975, studied sociology, economics and politics and graduated from the Berlin School of Journalism. From 2003 to 2022, he worked as business and politics editor at taz. From 2010, he was China correspondent in Beijing for nine years. He worked for Table Media before becoming an editor at Süddeutsche Zeitung Dossier. His book ‘China, mein Vater und ich’ became a Spiegel bestseller, won the German Business Book Prize 2023 and was in the top 10 of manager magazin for a year.