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Magna CEO: cheap robots may shift car making from China to U.S.

Published 2015-09-20, 02:53 p/m
© Reuters. Magna CEO: cheap robots may shift car making from China to U.S.

FRANKFURT, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The falling cost of
intelligent robots may help repatriate some car manufacturing
work away from low-cost locations like China back to factories
in Germany and North America, Donald Walker, Chief Executive of
auto supplier Magna told Reuters.
Rising wages in China and the cost of importing heavy
components like electric car batteries into Europe may lead
established car makers to introduce more highly efficient
automated manufacturing closer to home, Walker told Reuters in
an interview at the Frankfurt auto show.
"If you have a high labour, easy-to-ship part, it has
already gone, for the most part, to a low-cost jurisdiction,"
Walker said about the evolution of assembly work in the car
manufacturing business.
"A bigger issue is how fast do you have intelligent robotics
replace manual labour everywhere in the world," Walker said.
By 2025 the total cost of manufacturing labour is projected
to fall between 18 and 33 percent in countries which already
deploy industrial robots, including South Korea, China, the U.S.
Germany and Japan, a study on advanced manufacturing
technologies by the Boston Consulting Group showed.
The emergence of hybrid and electric cars means auto makers
have seen an increasing demand for large batteries, Walker
explained.
"If you look at a battery, it is a big heavy thing to ship.
The things that hold the battery, the bumpers, the wheels, those
are big bulky parts," Walker said.
"I think you will still see cars made where the market is.
And based on that, the big bulky parts and a lot of the
technology in there, will probably be made locally," Walker
said.

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