The question at issue for the day was whether Sweden is able to maintain a successful automotive industry. Hans Nyman from Automotive Sweden led the discussion from the very prestigious panel (see name for the panel
below), which represented contractors, academia, consultancies and the Swedish government´s venture capital company for the automotive industry. The audience consisted of a mix of people from industry, parliamentary politicians, Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) and academia.

One of the messages from several in the panel was that we must allow ourselves to be more proud of our domestic automotive industry. In many other nations there is a completely different attitude towards the automotive industry. Another issue that was highlighted was that Sweden must become better at attracting students and engineers. Unlike Germany, for example, none of our vehicle manufacturers tops the list of the most attractive companies for students. In a few years there will be a shortage of Swedish engineers, which means that the automotive industry needs to work to become more attractive.

On the question of the new owners for Volvo Cars and Saab the answer from one of the panel participants was: - Both our passenger car manufacturers have freed themselves from the two giants, I think this is very positive for the Swedish passenger car industry.

The seminar was followed up a week later in Trollhättan where SEB, Automotive Sweden, FKG, BIL Sweden and Innovatum again brought up the issue of the Swedish automotive industry´s future.

The Panel
Svenåke Berglie, FKG
Matts Carlsson, Göteborgs Management Institute
Anna Dubois, Chalmers University of Technology  
Walter Fortgens,  Pininfarina Sweden  
Stefan Ohlsson, Semcon
Didier Schreiber, Fouriertransform
Stephen Wallman, BIL Sweden