Automotive sector tops R&D investment scoreboard

Automotive sector tops R&D investment scoreboard

ACEA members spend over € 26 billion on research and development in Europe every year

The EU 2009 Industrial Investment Scoreboard has confirmed the outstanding role of the automotive industry for the European economy in terms of innovative capacity and investment power.

The automotive industry is the largest private investor in R&D in the EU. According to the Scoreboard, the categories ‘automobiles and parts’ and ‘commercial vehicles and trucks’ represented annual investment of € 32.8 billion in 2008. The actual number will be even higher, as this category does not include all automotive supplying sectors. The Scoreboard ranks ‘pharmaceuticals’ second with € 19.8 billion and ‘telecommunications equipment’ third (€ 12 billion).

Top rankings

The automotive industry has held its top position for years now. Six of the ACEA members are in the European Top 20 of investors, with two present in the Top 10, and one earmarked as largest single investor.

The fifteen ACEA members together spend over € 26 billion every year on R&D, or about 5% of their turnover. These figures, resulting from a recent ACEA survey among its member companies, reflect the great importance that the automobile manufacturers attach to R&D efforts to keep up their competitiveness and long-term viability. The aggregate figure used over the past decade was € 20 billion, or 4% of turnover.

6,300 patents

The many patents filed by the industry underline the sectors innovative stance as well. In 2008, almost 6,300 patents have been filed by the European automotive industry. They made up 55% of all automotive applications at the European Patent Office (EPO). 23% of automotive applications came from Japan, 16% from the US, 1% from China/Taiwan and 1% from South Korea.

last updated 09/02/2010

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