The so-called Volkswagen-Law for the protection of the car maker from hostile takeovers violates EU law. This is the verdict the European Court of Justice returned on October 2nd, 2007 in Luxembourg. The course is now set for the biggest European car manufacturer. This opens the door for a controlling interest of Porsche. Germany has to change the law or completely do away with it. This also renders the special privileges of Lower Saxony at Volkswagen obsolete.

It is surely not just a wild guess to assume that this verdict of the European Court of Justice is going to entail a lot more than just giving access to investors.

Europe’s biggest car manufacturer is indirectly becoming a family business. And it is certainly imaginable that the new owners are going to bring the VW-daughter Audi onto the stock exchange in the near future and thus turn a “giant” into two smaller but still striking car manufacturers.

The automotive industry has always been pace maker of the economy and this will show us in the future that successful globalization does not lie in gigantic turnover figures but rather in attractive revenues.

Ten years ago, Daimler-Benz AG in Stuttgart proclaimed a “global corporation”, which has now officially failed. After this and the near-bankruptcy of the American automotive giants GM and Ford car manufacturers are trying out new strategies where specializing, quality and product innovation and possibly cooperation or strategic alliance come to the fore. This also applies to German car manufacturers.

German car makers do not get the chance to produce low-budget cars for the Second and Third World. Even if they could, they would lose their most important asset they own, namely the image of being manufacturer of premium and luxury cars.

One more time we can put forward our motto for successful strategies: The future does not lie in “bigness”, but in “greatness”.

The premium and luxury car is not going to disappear from the market simply because these cars still use a disproportionate amount of gas. The industry is working at full speed on a technical solution in regard to this high gas consumption. Premium and luxury cars are not produced as a necessity. They are a prestigious sign of wealth. Representation is not lavishness. Representation is an important component of our society.

The German automotive industry is going to keep its leading role as premium and luxury manufacturer and it will demonstrate that trees never have to reach the sky, not even trees in a global village, in order to yield fruit.