The Automobile Industry in Niedersachsen
Niedersachsen’s industrial mainstay is the automobile industry and its suppliers, dominated by the Volkswagen Group with its headquarters in Wolfsburg: with marques from Audi to Bugatti, annual production of over seven million vehicles, about 61 manufacturing facilities around the world and 370,000 employees the concern is one of the world’s big three manufacturers. The automobile industry and its suppliers employ around 150,000 people in Niedersachsen, proportionally twice as many as the national average, about 100,000 of them at the VW locations in Wolfsburg, Braunschweig, Emden, Hannover and Salzgitter. At the main plant in Wolfsburg alone there 50,000 (of which 8,000 in research and development), and in Hannover 12,750 employees build light commercials (the famous VW Bus). Heavier vehicles are also made in Niedersachsen such as busses, trucks and components by MAN in Salzgitter. With the Mercedes-Benz plants in Bremen und Hamburg, the north of Germany is the largest automobile cluster in Europe.
Automotive Supplies
Efficient and reliable suppliers are essential for any successful automobile manufacturer – and there are around 700 of them in Niedersachsen. One of the largest, Continental AG, has its headquarters in Hannover, and 50 more of the world’s top 100 also have a base in Niedersachsen. Despite the worldwide trend to outsourcing there is thus hardly a single component that could not be supplied from Niedersachsen: seats from Stadthagen, steering systems from Lemförde, airbags from Braunschweig, in-car multimedia from Hildesheim and much more. Many companies have developed over the last 10-15 years from traditional parts makers to innovative system suppliers producing complete modules as partners to the automobile industry.
The transformation of Continental AG is the perfect example of this trend; its traditional tyre production is today subordinate to the development and manufacture of complex automotive systems such as dynamic chassis control and drive trains. Innumerable innovations that are now standard equipment such as ABS or ESP were developed by suppliers, and today electronic systems for intelligent navigation, tracking or automatic spacing between vehicles are being tested before being incorporated in mass production.
Research and Development
About half the research and development capacity of Niedersachsen’s industrial sector is devoted to the automobile industry. The sector’s strong research demand benefits numerous university institutes and extra-university research facilities which often create close cooperation between business and science. In 2008 the Niedersächsische Forschungszentrum für Fahrzeugtechnik (NFF) (Niedersachsen Research Centre for Vehicle Technology) evolved from such a cooperation with facilities in Braunschweig and Wolfsburg. This institute is supported by the State of Niedersachsen and the Volkswagen Group. Other research facilities are located in Hannover, such as the Produktionstechnische Zentrum (PZH) (Centre for Production Technology), the Zentrum für Fahrzeugkomponenten und Systeme (ZFKS) (Centre for Vehicle Components and Systems) or the Institut für Fertigungstechnik und Werkzeugmaschinen (IFW) (Institute for production processes, machines and controls and production organisation at Hannover University.
Training and Qualification
Many young engineers for Niedersachsen’s automobile industry are recruited from the state’s universities of applied sciences and technical universities in Hannover, Braunschweig and Clausthal. Along with the traditional subjects such as mechanical engineering and electrical engineering/electronics, higher education also responds to the specific needs of the automobile industry with courses of study such as vehicle technology at the Wolfsburg campus of the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences. Close relevance to industrial praxis is guaranteed by the numerous cooperation projects between higher education and the automobile industry, research commissions and third-party funded projects. In 2009, for example, almost 200 university graduates were working towards their Doctorates at Volkswagen.
In the craft trades, praxis-oriented training is ensured by the automobile industry and its suppliers’ readiness to take on and train apprentices. In vehicle construction alone, each year several thousand young people qualify as mechanics, mechatronic technicians or other trades. Practical further training with additional qualifications is provided by the training agencies of chambers of craft trades and trade associations.
Crossover Technologies: Mobility for the Future
A modern society cannot function without mobility, and this is the challenge to create innovative mobility concepts and technologies for the future. For this reason, in Niedersachsen numerous networks have been established within which science, business and government work together to find solutions. For example, the State Telematics Initiative is developing traffic management systems in a joint venture involving universities, medium-sized enterprises and large companies like Bosch, Siemens and Volkswagen. Their aim is to create a more efficient and cross-modal use of the transport infrastructure by using modern information and communications technologies such as mobile telephony, satellite navigation and interactive traffic flow guidance. The State Initiatives for Nanotechnology, Innovative Materials and Fuel Cells develop, among other inventions, functional materials and alternative mobile energy sources for automobiles. At the CFK - Valley Stade Network, alternative materials from carbon fibre for ultra-light construction are made for applications in aircraft and vehicle construction and for wind turbine rotor blades. Along with Volkswagen and Airbus, companies from abroad such as Toho Tenax from Japan, Hexel from the USA and MTorres from Spain are also members of this network.
Oliver Schrader
Investment Promotion, Director Mobility
Tel. +49 511 89 70 39 - 18
Fax +49 511 89 70 39 - 69
E-Mail: Oliver.Schrader(at)nglobal.de
Niedersachsen’s Automotive Networks and Clusters
|
Landesinitiative Adaptronik brosinger@ecas.eu Landesinitiative Nano- und Materialinnovationen AK Sunfuel – Volkswagen AG matthias.benke@lwk-niedersachsen.de Deutsches Institut für Kautschuktechnologie (DIK) e. V. info@dikautschuk.de Forschungsnetz Bildgebende Sensortechnik klaus.bobey@impah.de ITS Niedersachsen e. V. info@projekt-region-braunschweig.de Kompetenznetz Realisierung innovativer Konstruktionswerkstoffe aus nachwachsenden Rohstoffen (RIKO) Logistikinitiative Niedersachsen info@logistikportal-niedersachsen.de Niedersächsisches Forschungszentrum Fahrzeugtechnik (NFF) nff@tu-braunschweig.de Virtuelles Institut "Nanotechnology in Polymer Composites" |
Landesinitiative Brennstoffzelle und Batterietechnologie Niedersachsen info@brennstoffzelle-nds.de Landesinitiative Satellitennavigation (GAUSS) harry.evers@its-nds.de CFK Valley Stade e. V. info@cfk-valley.com Forschungsflughafen Braunschweig GmbH info@forschungsflughafen.de Ingenieur-Kompetenzzentrum Oberflächentechnik Norddeutschland (I-Kon) Kompetenznetz Industrielle Plasma-Oberflächentechnik (INPLAS) Laser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) e.V. info@lzh.de Measurement Valley e.V. office@measurement-valley.de SafeTRANS "Safety in Transportation Systems" e.V. info@safetrans-de.org Werkstoff Innovation Niedersachsen (WIN) a.burggraf@ostfalia.de Wissens- und Innovations-Netzwerk Polymertechnik (WIP) |
Company search
Company search Database "Mobility"
