What is the state of delocalisation by German manufacturers?
- While French and Italian manufacturers delocalised a great deal of their production in the 2000s, German manufacturers have limited their delocalisations, prefering to concentrate their manufacturing base in Germany.Delocalisation is based on the principle of tranferring an entreprise's operations, capital and jobs from one country to another in order to take advantage of more favourable economic conditions (notably lower costs). With this principle in mind, we examine the European delocalisations of the Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW:
-1) Volkswagen has long since delocalised the production of the Polo to Spain. More recently, VW has concentrated production of the Up-Mii-Citigo in Slovakia, the Caddy in Poland, large MPVs in Portugal (Sharan-Alhambra) and large SUVs in Slovakia (Touareg-Q7). Audi has delocalised part of its production to Hungary (A3), to Belgium (A1) and Spain (Q3).
-2) Mercedes has long since delocalised its Vito/V Class to Spain. More recently, Mercedes delocalised part of its production to Hungary (B Class, CLA). Large SUVs are all manufactured in the United States, the primary market for this type of vehicle, but this does not count as delocalisation in the truest sense.
-3) BMW is currently the German manufacturer which has delocalised the least, but production of all large SUVs is still carried out in the United States as this is the main market for this type of vehicle. These are therefore not true delocalisations.
- In 2015, VW delocalised 32% of its European production, Daimler 25% and BMW 0%.
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