At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, which kicks off on Jan. 7 (local time) in Las Vegas, United States, few German automobile companies are participating. This is analyzed to be due to the lack of notable achievements from German companies in fully autonomous vehicles and electric vehicles they had promoted over the past few years, leading to increasing concerns about the direction of future technologies.
On Jan. 6, one day before the opening, various corporations involved in mobility, electronics, and parts set up booths in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), but logos of German companies such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen were not visible. Among the finished vehicle manufacturers, booths mainly featured Japanese and Chinese companies such as Honda, Suzuki, Zika, and GWM. The West Hall is mainly where automobile and mobility-related corporations exhibit.
German automobile companies are reportedly creating small spaces for communication with partners and customers instead of showcasing group-level technology demonstrations or product unveilings at this year's CES. There was also no location where CEOs or major executives from German automobile corporations held media conferences to present key business plans or technologies.
For a long time, major German automobile corporations have participated in CES almost every year, taking center stage. German companies have mainly exhibited various concept cars claiming they would develop fully autonomous vehicles powered entirely by electricity, which require no human intervention, and announced collaboration plans with IT and electronics component companies. Many also unveiled upcoming new models at CES instead of auto shows.
The issue is that German companies have fallen behind without achieving notable results in the new technology fields they have shown determination to develop at several CES events. The electric vehicle market is dominated by U.S.-based Tesla and China's BYD, while Hyundai Motor and Kia are in pursuit. In the case of fully autonomous vehicles, Google's subsidiary Waymo, among others, is ahead in the robo-taxi business, whereas German companies are hindered by regulations or are showing limitations in technical capabilities, failing to commercialize.
Reflecting this reality, in this year's West Hall at CES, Waymo and Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Zika, as well as GWM, set up fairly large booths in prominent spaces to showcase technologies and key products.
Recently, the areas that German automobile corporations have newly turned their attention to have similarly gravitated in this direction. Volkswagen, for instance, unveiled a 'voice assistant' technology based on ChatGPT's artificial intelligence (AI) at last year's CES. Mercedes-Benz also introduced a similar type of virtual assistant as its key new technology. BMW also showcased enhanced performance intelligent personal assistant technology at CES that same year.
In contrast, competing companies are unveiling groundbreaking technologies that extend beyond autonomous driving and AI assistants at CES. Although the Hyundai Motor Group did not participate in this year's CES, it announced in 2020 that it would adopt flying cars and urban air mobility (UAM) as a core new business. Toyota announced that same year it would create the futuristic advanced city 'Woven City' instead of cars and this CES conveyed its five-year business achievements and future plans.
An automobile industry insider noted, 'German companies have enjoyed the status of luxury car brands for the past 100 years, but in the current intense competition for new technologies, their glorious past is becoming a factor that hinders bold innovation.'