German automakers are falling behind in the global race to produce more electric vehicles, as the Chinese car industry has rapidly transformed into a battery-powered juggernaut.
At I.A.A. Mobility, a massive auto show in Munich, newcomers from China stole the show this week, at a precarious time for the German auto industry. In June, production shrank by 3.5 percent compared with the previous month, weighing on the country’s overall industrial production. Overall growth was flat from April to June.
The doldrums extend beyond automakers. Economic output in Germany is stagnating, weighed down by the high cost of energy and raw materials, a lingering effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
“I think the Europeans are just pretty much petrified of how the Chinese will perform in Europe,” said Matthias Schmidt, an independent analyst of the electric-car market based in Berlin.
