The President of the VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry), Hildegard Müller, visited the Attendorn-based automotive supplier companies KIRCHHOFF Automotive, Mubea and the Automotice Center Südwestalen (acs) on January 18. The main topics of the talks were demography and shortage of skilled workers as well as current issues around material supply and raw material prices.

All those involved in the talks – including our shareholders Arndt G. Kirchhoff and J. Wolfgang Kirchhoff – agreed that domestic companies must make their employees fit for the transformation – no one will be lost. Another important topic of the talks was energy costs and, above all, energy volumes: Where is all the electricity supposed to come from, according to the political directive? Apart from the fact that we lack thousands of charging points for e-vehicles, where does the electricity from the gas pump come from?

In addition to KIRCHHOFF Automotive, Hildegard Müller visited the companies Mubea and acs. The acs is our partner in the research and development of innovative body structure parts. This collaboration has resulted, for example, in a hybrid instrument panel beam and a pre-galvanized crash management system with high deformation capacity, which we presented at the IAA Mobility in Munich.

Hildegard Müller succeeded Bernhard Mattes as VDA President on February 1, 2020.