BY: MICHAEL STOPP

Horch, Trabant, DKW, the Transparent Factory and Sachsenring: the automotive industry in Saxony has many years of tradition. The foundations for the automotive cluster in Saxony were laid back in May 1904. Back then August Horch established the “Horch-Motorenwerke” that were named after him, and established the Audi brand - (Latin for “horch” or “hark”). Later great names such as DKW and Wanderer joined them. During the GDR era, this tradition was kept alive by the Trabant „figurehead“. At the beginning of the 1990s radical structural change came about in the car and component supplier industry. Many of the very antiquated plants had to be shut down. Some could however be modernised. Since reunification in 1990, a total of EUR 6bn has flowed into more than 130 research and development projects, to prepare Saxon companies for global competition.

Today, Saxony is one of the premier centres of the German automotive sector, with its five car or engine factories belonging to Volkswagen, Porsche, BMW and NEOPLAN. The component suppliers in Saxony, who are overwhelmingly SMEs, have established themselves as reliable partners of the large car manufacturers in the international marketplace. With a turnover share of more than 20% (approx. EUR 10bn), and an export share of around 40%, the car and component supplier industry is the key sector of the Saxon economy. At turnover of EUR 337,000 per employee, it is also the most productive sector in Saxony.

Around 65,000 people are currently employed in more than 450 companies in the Saxon automotive industry. A distinguishing feature of this industrial centre is the pronounced component supplier network, which is internationally oriented. The product spectrum of the suppliers includes everything from accessories to transmissions, for example.

Centres and regions
The centres of the Saxon automotive cluster include the Chemnitz-Zwickau-Ore Mountains region and the regions of Dresden, Leipzig, Zittau and Plauen.

In the Chemnitz-Zwickau–Ore Mountains region beats the automotive heart of the Free State. Volkswagen’s strong commitment to Mosel and Chemnitz attracted many well-known component suppliers and revitalised the local component supplier industry. In the automotive sector this region is home to more than 300 component suppliers, employing more than 40,000 people.  That is some two thirds of current sector capacity in Saxony.

The automotive region of Dresden is well-known worldwide for one particular highlight: Volkswagen AG’s “Transparent Factory”, located in the heart of the city on the Elbe. More than 800 people work here, with a further 2,500 working at component suppliers in close proximity. Saxony’s capital has also made a name for itself in the field of vehicle electrics/electronics.

Since 1992, the "NEOPLAN" brand of airport apron buses has been manufactured in Plauen in the Vogtland. Three international component suppliers have set up manufacturing facilities in Treuen, close to the large car manufacturers in Saxony – the Italian Magnetto Group, Louis Automotive AG from North Rhine-Westphalia and the Swiss Weidmann Plastics Technology AG.

Currently a new automotive industry cluster is developing in Leipzig. Since August 2002 Porsche AG has been manufacturing its “Cayenne” cross-country vehicle, and since August 2003 the Carrera GT high-performance sports car in a factory covering some 90ha. The Munich-based vehicle manufacturer BMW has been in the region since 2002. The BMW 3 Series has recently begun to be manufactured at facilities covering 200ha. BMW aims to employ 5,000 specialist staff.

Other important automotive centres in Saxony include the Lausitz region. Located between the 3 major automotive centres of Leipzig (BMW, Porsche), Wroclaw/Poland (Volkswagen) and Mlada Boleslaw/Czech Republic (Skoda) – the Lausitz region is one of the most promising growth regions, on account of its proximity to Eastern European automotive centres. International component suppliers, such as the Bavarian Weigl Group, the Italian Accuma Group or the US-Japanese joint venture Cloyes Europe GmbH have set up operations here.