WDK rejects automotive industry’s demands for price cuts as ‘reckless’

Frankfurt, Germany – The German rubber industry association (WDK) has strongly criticised recent demands by car makers for financial concessions as “reckless,” warning that there was no further room to be flexible.

“The current structural adjustments in the German automotive industry are painful and we sympathise with all those affected,” said WDK managing director Boris Engelhardt.

According to Engelhardt, there is a gap in development trends between ‘growing manufacturers’ and ‘shrinking suppliers’ who are “fighting for their existence.”

“That in this situation automotive manufacturers are demanding massive financial concessions from their suppliers is reckless,” the WDK head added.

Such demands, Engelhardt stressed, are “existentially threatening” for suppliers.

According to WDK, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers had previously collaborated, combining their strengths over many decades.

However, Engelhardt said German automotive manufacturers “are now acting purely driven by costs,” bringing this successful cooperation to an end.

The WDK head said many disruptive global shocks since 2019 had forced suppliers to reduce their capacities.

“Nevertheless, they had remained maximally flexible and capable of delivering. However, the limits of what is possible have now been reached,” he warned.

Engelhardt pointed to "€65 billion in write-downs in 2025 on the side of the automotive industry," adding that this was caused by “a lack of technological openness and foresight in state mobility regulation.”

“The answer to the capacity adjustments now forced by the normative power of facts cannot be to demand massive price reductions on ongoing business from the shrunken suppliers,” he added.

Engelhardt concluded that it is now the automotive manufacturers’ turn to show solidarity, which he said “is not a one-way street.”