The German Automotive Industry Under Chinese Investment Pressure: Between Cooperation And Strategic Uncertainty

In the current economic and geopolitical context – marked by the energy transition, technological disruption and mounting global trade tensions – Germany’s automotive industry is experiencing a period of structural fragility, while China is consolidating its position as an industrial and technological leader by directing capital strategically towards outbound investments. Within this new climate, the traditional foundations of bilateral cooperation in the sector concerned are becoming increasingly fragile. This article investigates the role of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in reshaping the economic relationship between the two countries, focusing specifically on the automotive sector. It considers investment flows as both an expression of capital globalisation and a tool of industrial and geopolitical influence. While Chinese FDI initially aligned with the economic logic of partnership, facilitating technology transfer to the non-EU investor and its integration into European production networks, the underlying motivations have diversified in recent years, acquiring increasingly visible strategic undertones. As a result, such investments now more frequently serve as vehicles for industrial and geopolitical positioning, fuelling concerns about access to sensitive technologies and the potential erosion of Germany’s technological autonomy in the automotive sector. Against this backdrop, the analysis provides a critical interpretative framework through which to examine how Chinese FDI inflows increasingly act as vectors of a tense reconfiguration marked by ambivalence between economic cooperation and systemic rivalry. The conclusions highlight the multiple challenges that Germany faces in attempting to preserve the competitiveness and sovereignty of its automotive sector in an international environment characterised by fragmentation, uncertainty and strategic recalibration.