Navarre's industry, facing the challenge of the electric vehicle

As the automotive industry moves towards electrification, Navarre faces significant challenges to boost the competitiveness of its value chain. The transition towards sustainable mobility represents one of the greatest challenges and, at the same time, opens up new opportunities for companies. The need to adapt to the transformation driven by technology, regulatory changes, new social demands and the market itself has become a critical factor in maintaining the sector's current position as a benchmark. This leadership is the result of the knowledge accumulated over more than 50 years of experience and activity.

The automotive industry in Navarre closes 2023 in a solid position, with the confirmation of investments worth millions so that over the next five years a successful period linked to the combustion engine will come to an end and activity linked to electromobility will begin. The stakes are enormous, as what is really at stake is that the current size of the sector as a whole, OEMs and suppliers, should be maintained in the short and medium term as the leading production and export area in the region, as well as its level of contribution to economic activity, employment and progress in Navarre.

Another no less important objective is to ensure that the industry is able to compete in a global market as demanding as the automotive sector and in a sector where the cost variable remains the differentiating factor, although other elements linked to sustainability are beginning to be incorporated. Automation and, above all, the digitalisation of companies, not only in the production areas, but also in the organisations and people themselves, are already an essential element if we want the sector to be able to face the future with guarantees. 

The position of ACAN (Automotive Cluster Association of Navarre) in this complex and volatile scenario for the industry is to continue working as a vector of connection and dynamisation to boost the competitiveness of companies. In recent years, the cluster has been shaping an ecosystem of cooperation for its fifty or so associates. 

This ecosystem is based on a vision that goes beyond the traditional and purely industrial characterisation of the sector and is oriented towards a reinforced value chain in which there is also room for those actors, entities and public or private endowments that are capable of providing knowledge, innovation, technology and service, solutions, in short, to companies. ACAN brings together all those actors who contribute added value to the sector, regardless of their origin, the activity they carry out or their initial link with the manufacture of automobiles and their components.

In short, the automotive industry in Navarre is in a solid position, but the transition to the electric vehicle poses very demanding goals. Effective public-private collaboration is particularly necessary at this time in order to meet them with results. Investment in infrastructures, strategic collaboration and the training and adaptation of people are key factors in guaranteeing competitiveness in this new chapter in the evolution of the automotive industry.

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Article published in AutoRevista 2.386