Audi AG, member of Volkswagen Group is continously searching for new partners to join their supply chain to develop cutting-edge technologies in the automotive industry. In cooperation with VW Regional Office Eastern Europe and Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA), the German premium car manufacturer organised an event (AUDI Innovation Day) on 5-6 September in Groupama Arena, Budapest, where 15 innovative regional startups have the opportunity to convince company representatives to cooperate with them.
Continuous innovation is essential for companies to secure their place or to step up in the supplier pyramid. The most recent trends in the automotive industry, like electromobility or self-driving vehicles, require next generation suppliers, mostly related to the electronics and IT sectors. The buzzing Hungarian startup ecosystem offers wide range of agile and innovative companies, most of them are already internationally well-known. Thanks to the recommendation of the HIPA Supplier Department, seven of them have been chosen to give a presentation at the Audi Innovation Day.
The German premium car manufacturer is looking for new partners in Europe to develop pioneer technologies of the automotive industry. During the two-day event at Groupama Arena in Budapest, they will meet 15 innovative companies. The program starts with a Hungarian day, because 7 of the possible partners comes from Hungary. Aero Glass, AImotive, Commsignia, Evopro, Grantedby.me, Optoforce and Sparkon will have the opportunity to introduce their services to the Audi team.
Alongside investment promotion, it is a priority for HIPA to strengthen the supplier role of the Hungarian SME sector in order to increase the Hungarian ratio of the added-value investments. Automotive corporations increasingly expect suppliers to assume a greater share of the development processes, such as product development and R&D. OEMs produce approximately 30 per cent of the added value of the entire product, while suppliers account for the remaining 70 per cent. The entire supplier pyramid is under constant pressure to develop and to be innovative. To this end, HIPA’s Supplier Development aims to promote and integrate as many Hungarian SMEs as possible into the supply chain, to train and develop SMEs, and to strengthen their “soft” elements to ensure that they can retain a solid position or advance in the production processes.
The automotive industry forms the backbone of the Hungarian national economy, both in terms of production volume and the speed of its growth. 25 out of the 71 projects successfully negotiated by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) were related to the automotive industry. These projects will generate investment volumes of EUR 2 billion in the forthcoming years, creating more than 7,700 jobs. Moreover, the output of the automotive industry has never been as high as in 2016: the nearly EUR 26 billion is a notable growth compared to the nearly EUR 22 billion in 2014.
Source: hipa.hu
