What do the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the BMW 530e Plug-In Hybrid and the fully electric Jaguar I-Pace have in common? They all come from Austria! For all necessary parts of a car and even entire vehicles such as the off-road car with the star are produced in the alpine country. With 109,500 passenger vehicles produced in 2020, Austria is a relatively small producer compared to Romania, which manufactured 438,107 units the same year. However, as a supplier of vehicle parts and technologies, Austria is an important player.

Internationally Connected and Innovative

Located in the heart of a growing CEE automotive industry, the Austrian automotive industry provides its customer services in many fields, such as chassis construction, electrics and electronics, engines or services. With an export rate of about 90%, the Austrian automotive industry is highly internationally oriented. Out of all Austrian automotive exports, almost half go to Germany. The large number of production sites by German automotive corporations in Austria provide further evidence of the strong links between the countries’ automotive industries. More than half of all newly produced cars by BMW Group have their “heart” produced in BMW’s production site in Steyr.

Given the Austrian automotive industry is mainly concentrated in two Automotive Clusters, companies are encouraged to put their ideas together and work on innovative product solutions and production processes. In the last 25 years, the Austrian automotive industry has received investments of EUR 7.8 billion, of which EUR 666 million in 2020 alone. Specialisation areas include engineering and prototype construction, development and production of combustion engines and complex four-wheel units.

Furthermore, Austria invests in the future of mobility. In the course of four years, the number of annual registrations of new vehicles with alternative drive grew fivefold to more than 53,000 in 2020. Being a European leader in resource-efficient and energy-saving lightweight construction, Upper Austria ranks in a comparison of 50 European top regions 19th in the lightweight construction area and 3rd in the area of metal composites. In addition to technical universities that provide top services for the automotive sector, more than 50 non-university research facilities and/or institutions in Austria are cooperation partners for companies. On top of that, in the field of autonomous driving, high-tech from Austria is used all over the world. For example, the Austrian company BECOM has developed a revolutionary scalable and secure control unit platform that can be used by vehicle manufacturers and suppliers worldwide.

Outlook

Austria’s position as a leader in future mobility and four-wheel production gives it a competitive advantage for the years to come. Given the high level of investment in research in the automotive industry – annually, almost EUR 25,000 are spent per workplace in the automotive industry on research – Austria is expected to contribute to tomorrow’s mobility solutions.

From November 8th to 10th , ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Romania organizes an Automotive Austrian Showcase. Austrian automotive businesses get together with Romanian companies and visit production sites in prospect of future cooperation and business partnerships.

Interested? Get in touch with us at Bukarest@advantageaustria.org.

Team ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA Bucharest

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