In Germany, it has become the order of the day for automotive supplier companies to come up with bad news. Listed companies are reducing their full year forecasts. And Regensburg based Vitesco, which has been swallowed up by Schaeffler, has had to transfer 125 million euros to its former parent company Continental as part of a settlement related to the diesel emissions scandal.

Meanwhile, the number of insolvencies is increasing rapidly in the automotive suppliers sector, which is traditionally made up of medium-sized companies. The picture is the same everywhere: smaller providers are going out of business in droves, while others are cutting jobs.

There is no question that German automotive suppliers are experiencing the deepest recession in the industry since the outbreak of the financial markets crisis 15 years ago. The collapse in business with electric cars due to a significant drop in demand is putting pressure on companies. The crisis in this area of the automotive industry is a mirror image of the crisis facing OEMs, and in particular the high volume manufacturer Volkswagen. While the Wolfsburg-based multi-brand group is implementing an extensive cost-cutting programme, premium suppliers Mercedes-Benz and BMW are also doing their calculations with a sharp pencil, in view of the slump. To put it simply: if the car manufacturers are doing badly, so are the suppliers.

Suppliers who have not put all their eggs in the electric vehicle basket, but are instead taking a multi-track approach along the lines of BMW, are faring better. The losers are those companies that, relying on political guidelines, abandoned the business with conventional combustion vehicles at an early stage, in order to focus fully on the climate-neutral, emission-free mobility of the future. They invested millions from their own resources, and also took on a lot of debt. If interest rates rise, some of them will be so financially strapped that they will go bankrupt.

In this fight for survival, the already strained relationship between OEMs and suppliers will further deteriorate. Everyone is putting themselves first. The conversational tone will become harsher, and the suppliers' meagre margins will continue to shrink. Only those who have enough money to spare can overcome the industry crisis. But there are fewer and fewer of them in the valley of tears.