In his presentation at the AUTOMOBIL-ELEKTRONIK Kongress 2026, Florian Weig outlined how geopolitical tensions, rising costs and growing technological complexity are reshaping electronics procurement.Matthias Baumgartner
Geopolitical tensions, rising costs and growing chip complexity are putting increasing pressure on automotive electronics procurement. At the AEK, BMW’s Florian Weig explained why transparency, standards and new forms of collaboration are becoming critical.
Florian Weig, Senior Vice President Purchasing &
Supplier Network Digital at BMW, argues that OEMs need a deeper understanding
of the electronics value chain and that standards, transparency and resilient
partner networks are becoming increasingly important.
Following his AEK presentation,
we spoke with him about supply chain visibility, emerging forms of
collaboration and the challenge of balancing global scale with local
adaptation. In the interview, Weig explains why he is cautious about the notion
of “control” and what China’s digital ecosystem has to do with BMW’s Neue Klasse strategy.
I am cautious about the word control. It can very quickly
lead us towards the mindset that we have to do everything ourselves. That must
not be our approach. We need strong partners, and we need confident partners.
What we also need, however, is a shared understanding of the challenges we
face. One of the biggest challenges for the entire automotive industry at the
moment is competitiveness, and closely linked to that is the issue of cost.
That is why we need to reach a new level through transparency,
collaboration and common standards.
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Collaboration is exactly the right keyword. Software, AI,
semiconductors and data are becoming increasingly interconnected in the
vehicle. Are traditional supplier relationships still sufficient, or does the
industry need new roles and forms of cooperation?
In my view, we can no longer think purely in terms of
traditional linear supply chains, where an automotive manufacturer has little
involvement beyond the first tiers of its supply chain. There are areas where
that model still works extremely well. However, particularly in semiconductors
and AI, we are currently experiencing such profound change that we can no
longer rely on information simply being passed along the chain. We need to find
new ways of collaborating across the value chain and in new constellations. The
Chiplet CHASSIS initiative is an outstanding example of this. It demonstrates
that we are strongest when we work together deep within the value chain and
jointly develop new standards for the automotive industry.
The automotive industry is currently searching for the
right balance between global scale and local adaptation in many areas. This
applies to production and development, but also to procurement and supply
chains. How does BMW achieve this balance?
I believe that, as the BMW Group, we are managing this
balance very well at the moment. The Neue Klasse fulfils this global ambition
while still giving us the flexibility to implement regionally preferred
solutions. One example is the Chinese digital ecosystem, which is completely
different from the Western one. There is no Spotify there; instead, there is QQ
Music. There is WeChat rather than WhatsApp. The key players are different, and
customer expectations are different as well. With the Neue Klasse, we maintain a global platform while still being able to
address the specific requirements of individual markets at the
application layer.
