Gastkommentar: Firmen bauen Geschäft in China aus und in der EU ab
In China sucht Europas Industrie Wettbewerbsvorteile. Damit riskiert sie, sich selbst und den Standort Europa zu schwächen, warnt Merics-Analyst Andreas Mischer. Jetzt ist die EU gefragt.
European and especially German firms are threatening to undermine Europe's "Derisking" by expanding their businesses in China. This refers to reducing economic vulnerabilities concerning the People's Republic of China. Locating in China, European companies hope to gain closer proximity to a massive market as well as higher competitiveness through lower costs.
However, they overlook that these advantages come at the expense of Europe. German automobile manufacturers have pursued a "In China, for China" strategy and are shifting an increasing share of value creation to China. Volkswagen, for example, operates its largest research and development center outside Germany in Hefei, China and aims to reduce development costs for new models in China by up to 50 percent in collaboration with the Chinese manufacturer Xpeng.
Nevertheless, the struggle of German carmakers to capture market share in China appears increasingly futile. In the second quarter of 2026, sales of Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW fell by at least 30 percent compared to the previous year. Consequently, it is not surprising that the utilization of all joint plants of Volkswagen and its joint venture partner SAIC was only 58 percent in 2025, compared to a total capacity of 2.1 million vehicles.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
