Automotive Industry of the Netherlands.

Regional and market specifications.

The automotive industry in the Netherlands employs approximately 41.500 people divided over OEM’s, suppliers, R&D institutions and other automotive companies.

Overall, the automotive industry is one of the main industries in The Netherlands. The main drivers of the Dutch economy are sectors like transport/logistics, trading and services. Manufacturing industries are less dominant within the Netherlands compared to other European countries. Within the manufacturing industries, automotive is one of the main industries.

Geographically the automotive industry is concentrated in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands (over 50% of the Dutch automotive employment is to be found here) and also the mid-eastern part of the Netherlands is home for many automotive companies. For these regions, automotive is an important industry for employment and innovation.


Overview of the Dutch Automotive Industry.

The automotive industry in the Netherlands is part of a broader automotive region including Belgium/Flanders and the North Rhine Westphalia (Germany). For future development this cross-border region and especially the triangle Leuven-Aachen-Eindhoven will become of major importance for innovation. For this reason it has recently been decided to concentrate automotive research in the Eindhoven region resulting in a relocation of TNO Automotive.

Vehicle Manufacturers.

The future expectations for Dutch Vehicle Manufacturers are positive. The production of trucks and busses increased every year since 1997. DAF Trucks realised a strong growth in volume and market share over the past years and has become one of the main European manufacturers of heavy trucks (>13% market share). The company is owned by the US firm Paccar. In the Netherlands DAF develops, designs and assembles complete trucks for markets worldwide including engines.

On top of this the Netherlands are home to the largest assembly plant of Scania and the company recently announced additional investments. Two more niche manufacturers produce tailor made trucks mainly for the Dutch market: Ginaf and Terberg.

The coach and bus builders of the Netherlands are concentrated in the VDL group. This group produced approximately 2.000 busses in 2006 and employs 1.600 people. The products are sold under brand names as Bova and Berkhof. The group has a European market share of 10% and the company is the largest independent manufacturer in Europe (not owned by a truck manufacturer). Worth mentioning is the fact that VDL Bus has developed an intelligent transport vehicle. The vehicle makes use of electronic guidance, has a hybrid powertrain system of a combined CNG/Electro power train and is developed to drive unmanned.

In the southern part of the Netherlands NedCar produces the Mitsubishi Colt. This former Volvo production plant is currently owned by DaimlerChrysler and has a production capacity of 185.000 vehicles per year. This plant also attracts a high number of suppliers to the region.

The Netherlands are also home to several specialty vehicle producers such as Spyker Cars, Carver and Donkervoort, all producing high-end niche sports cars.

Suppliers.

The automotive supplier landscape is very diverse. It includes transplants from foreign suppliers around the NedCar plant, with the main function of local sub-assembly for on-sequence supply at the assembly line. The industry also houses jobbers for processing of metal- and plastic parts.

However, the backbone of the supply sector is formed by a number of specialised system suppliers, like Inalfa (Roof Systems), Polynorm, VDT Bosch, Siemens VDO and others. These are companies that have their roots in the Netherlands, but are now mostly part of international groups.

Another strength of the Dutch supply sector is the presence of some large raw material suppliers like DSM, GE Plastics and Corus, all relying heavily on the automotive industry for their output.

The automotive supply industry operates on a highly international level, with the majority of purchases coming from abroad, with high export percentages and with international partnerships for development. The Dutch automotive suppliers realise approximately 90% of their sales abroad. Most important export area is Germany, followed by France and Belgium. A strong international orientation was necessary to realise growth since the number of Dutch automotive manufacturers is limited.

The importance of strengthening local networks as a basis for innovation has been on the strategic agenda for many years now, and through the foundation of an adequate automotive cluster organisation (Federation Holland Automotive / Automotive Technology Centre) the network has been gaining strength in a high pace.

Research, Development and Engineering.

In the Netherlands there are 14 major centres for Research, Development, Testing and Engineering, both at institutes and companies, which can be marked as automotive knowledge centres. The main institute for applied automotive research is TNO Automotive (25% of the activities of TNO are related to automotive industry). TNO Automotive can be divided in 4 fields:

· ACTS (Advanced Chassis and Transport Systems): Main theme is Active safety: TNO Vehil has for example a state-of-the-art vehicle testing laboratory for vehicle dynamics and control.

· Safety: Activities are related to Passive safety. For example airbags, seatbelts etc. TNO also has a large Crash Test facility in which more complicated crash tests are being designed, executed and analysed.

· Power trains: Development and testing of power trains on the following fields:

o Emissions

o Diesel after-treatment

o Gas engines (hybrid and fuel cell)

· Homologation: Testing of components in order to gain type-approval

Education.

Automotive academic technical education is concentrated at the Technical University of Eindhoven. Automotive specialisation has been organised within the faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The following disciplines have been selected as specialisation:

· Drivelines

· Vehicle safety

· Combustion engines

· Vehicle dynamics

Furthermore there are 3 automotive Universities of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. These universities are located in Arnhem, Eindhoven and Rotterdam and offer specialised curricula in automotive engineering , automotive management and automotive education

World Class Automotive from the Netherlands.

Overview of internationally leading technological companies (Source: PPS automotive, May 2006)

For more information about the Dutch automotive industry please visit www.fier.net.

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