AmCham Slovakia

Central Europe has restored its industrial pedigree, and its prosperity, primarily by producing cars. The abundance of quality engineers, adequate logistics infrastructure, and highly competitive costs turned the region into workshop for European personal transport. 

Now, the automotive industry is rapidly shifting gears to meet the growing demand for cars fueled by clean energy- and the stricter requirements of Brussels. At the same time, the internet of things promises to increase efficiency of production. How does this impact the standing of Central Europe in the indusrry? Are its engineers prepared for the shift into digital production? What about its production line crews? Can the Slovak research industry take advantage of the disequilibrium caused by so much change in so little time, and shift some of the value-added segments of the industry into the region's labs?

Petr Knap, EY's managing partner for the automotive sector in the region, will discuss these topics with Martin Jahn of Volkswagen and Tomáš Vondrák of Continental in the first part of series on the dual revolution in the automotive industry.