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Software expertise has become a new battleground for automakers
and tech firms as cars need lines of code to connect electric
car motors to batteries, talk to smartphones or activate brakes
when a radar system detects an obstacle ahead.
Without beefing up their digital expertise, German automakers
will struggle to offer new premium features such as autonomous
driving and car-sharing services to compete with new rivals such
as Google and Uber.
"What car companies are doing is hiring people generally from
outside automotive. Some companies a few years ago didn't have a
connected car department. They all have that now," said Malcolm
Earp, chief executive at Magma People, a specialist automotive
recruitment company said.
In August, BMW, Audi and Mercedes said they would pay about 2.5
billion euros ($2.8 billion) to buy Nokia's maps business,
beating out high-tech rivals for location services seen as key
to the future of self-driving cars.
In September last year, Daimler bought Daimler bought mytaxi and
RideScout, two smartphone applications that will help the maker
of Mercedes-Benz limousines provide services to people who do
not own cars.
In the latest example of cross-pollination between the tech and
car sectors, Google named auto veteran John Krafcik, the former
chief executive of Hyundai Motors America as chief of its
self-driving car project.
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The tech focus for premium carmakers means that despite a
general drive to cut costs and boost margins amid a slowdown in
China, the world's largest car market, they are adding staff to
stay in the digitization race.
BMW's workforce rose 6.2 percent to 119,489 at the end of June,
from 112,500 a year earlier. The Bavarian automaker said it will
continue to recruit staff in 2015 to help "the advancement of
new technologies, including the ever-increasing scale of
digitalization".
Bavarian rival Audi, the premium brand owned by Volkswagen ,
said its workforce had increased by 8 percent between January
and June to 81,640 staff.
Audi plans to add another 6,000 staff "primarily to support the
development of pioneering technologies as well as for the
expansion of our international sites".
Mercedes parent company Daimler said headcount rose 1.6 percent
in the first half of the year to 284,441 and overall headcount
will rise this year from 2014.
The Stuttgart-based maker of luxury cars and trucks remains on
the lookout for expertise in data analysis.
In June, Daimler Trucks bought telematics provider Zonar Systems
Inc. to help roll out satellite-based connectivity services for
fleet operators such as remote diagnostics.
"The automotive industry is facing a big disruption through
connectivity and connected driving technologies. These features
will become an important source of differentiation," said
Andreas Tschiesner, head of McKinsey's automotive practice in
Germany.
(Editing by David Clarke)
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