VISION 2030: European Textile Solutions for Future Mobility

Strategic Impulses for the Transformation of the European Automotive Textile Supply Chain

Guidance Papers for supply chain Stakeholders

1. Introduction

Since Jan­u­ary 2024, Gherzi Ger­many has been active­ly sup­port­ing the trans­for­ma­tion of Europe’s tex­tile indus­try to meet the evolv­ing demands of the mobil­i­ty sec­tor. The ini­tia­tive, Car­TexEu­rope 2024, is backed by Euro­pean struc­tur­al devel­op­ment pro­grams and focus­es on the strate­gic repo­si­tion­ing of the tex­tile indus­try towards becom­ing an inno­v­a­tive sup­pli­er for the future Euro­pean auto­mo­tive land­scape.

Key top­ics include Glob­al­iza­tion 2.0, Dig­i­tal­iza­tion, Decar­boniza­tion, Autonomous Mobil­i­ty, and the restruc­tur­ing of sup­ply chains. Cir­cu­lar econ­o­my prin­ci­ples and mate­r­i­al recy­cla­bil­i­ty are also empha­sized, align­ing with expec­ta­tions from indus­tries, con­sumers, and Euro­pean pol­i­cy­mak­ers.

Amid pro­found glob­al shifts, Europe’s tex­tile sec­tor holds tremen­dous poten­tial: by com­bin­ing its pro­duc­tion exper­tise with new mobil­i­ty demands, Europe can play a piv­otal role in shap­ing sus­tain­able indus­tries. Through sur­veys, inter­views, and work­shops, Gherzi Ger­many devel­oped strate­gic foun­da­tions aim­ing to secure the tex­tile indus­try’s role with­in tomor­row’s val­ue chains across Europe.

Vision 2030 aspires to trans­form Europe’s tex­tile hubs into lead­ing cen­ters of inno­va­tion, diver­si­fy­ing beyond auto­mo­tive solu­tions and cre­at­ing new indus­tri­al oppor­tu­ni­ties amidst sec­tor con­sol­i­da­tion.

2. CarTexEurope Today

The Euro­pean auto­mo­tive indus­try is under­go­ing a fun­da­men­tal trans­for­ma­tion, mov­ing away from con­tin­u­ous growth towards con­sol­i­da­tion and strate­gic reori­en­ta­tion. Dri­ven by new mar­ket demands, glob­al eco­nom­ic shifts, and rapid­ly chang­ing con­sumer behav­iors, tra­di­tion­al OEMs and sup­ply chains face mount­ing pres­sure.

The tex­tile sec­tor, espe­cial­ly with­in auto­mo­tive sup­ply, faces exis­ten­tial chal­lenges. Com­pa­nies must rethink their busi­ness mod­els, regard­less of their depen­den­cy on the auto­mo­tive sec­tor. Infla­tion, con­sumer restraint in key mar­kets like Europe and Chi­na, and com­pe­ti­tion from low-wage regions inten­si­fy the cri­sis.

Pro­duc­tion relo­ca­tions to coun­tries such as Roma­nia, Poland, Por­tu­gal, Moroc­co, and Egypt have placed high-wage regions under immense cost pres­sure. Con­se­quent­ly, Euro­pean tex­tile sup­pli­ers must rethink their strate­gies, focus­ing not sole­ly on inno­va­tion but also on effi­cien­cy, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and sup­ply chain agili­ty.

Despite the chal­lenges, the cri­sis opens oppor­tu­ni­ties. Euro­pean sup­pli­ers pos­sess the tech­no­log­i­cal exper­tise to diver­si­fy into future-ori­ent­ed mar­kets — pro­vid­ed they adopt a mar­ket-dri­ven and eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable approach. Inno­va­tion with­out mar­ket via­bil­i­ty offers no sus­tain­able future.

The EU Com­mis­sion’s Action Plan of March 2025 under­scores the impor­tance of invest­ment in dig­i­tal­iza­tion and sus­tain­abil­i­ty but insuf­fi­cient­ly address­es struc­tur­al crises with­in Euro­pean sup­ply chains. Europe’s tex­tile auto­mo­tive sup­pli­ers must there­fore not only inno­vate but also devel­op com­pet­i­tive cost struc­tures to main­tain their rel­e­vance.

3. General Vision 2030 for the Sector

Transformation by 2030: Resilience Through Diversification and Strategic Renewal

By 2030, Europe’s for­mer­ly auto­mo­tive-depen­dent tex­tile sec­tor will have fun­da­men­tal­ly trans­formed. Com­pa­nies will serve diver­si­fied mar­kets beyond inte­ri­or com­po­nents like head­lin­ers, seat cov­ers, and pan­els. Four busi­ness arche­types will emerge:

• Adap­ta­tion With­in Con­sol­i­da­tion: Com­pa­nies remain inte­grat­ed with­in Euro­pean auto­mo­tive sup­ply chains but face glob­al com­pe­ti­tion, requir­ing best-in-class process effi­cien­cy and tech­ni­cal excel­lence.
• Niche Play­ers: High­ly spe­cial­ized firms will tar­get glob­al nich­es such as avi­a­tion, health­care, and cus­tomized mobil­i­ty, dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing through tech­no­log­i­cal lead­er­ship and brand sto­ry­telling.
• Region­al­ly Autonomous Orga­ni­za­tions (DAOs): Com­pa­nies will build resilient, local­ized val­ue chains with­in Europe, min­i­miz­ing depen­den­cy on volatile glob­al mar­kets.
• Alliances Across Bor­ders: Tra­di­tion­al pro­duc­ers will join inter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships and con­sor­tiums to achieve scale, effi­cien­cy, and glob­al reach.

Suc­cess will depend on strate­gic fore­sight, mar­ket dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion, and attrac­tive, flex­i­ble work mod­els to retain and attract tal­ent.

4. Vision 2030 — Europe as a Beacon of Industrial Transformation

By 2030, Europe aims to exem­pli­fy suc­cess­ful struc­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion. Through col­lab­o­ra­tion among com­pa­nies, pol­i­cy­mak­ers, and acad­e­mia, Europe will secure employ­ment, estab­lish new eco­nom­ic per­spec­tives, and ensure sus­tain­able fis­cal rev­enues.

This trans­for­ma­tion will reflect a dynam­ic ecosys­tem where com­pa­nies inte­grate spe­cial­ized pro­duc­tion, dig­i­tal process­es, and sus­tain­able mate­ri­als to com­pete glob­al­ly.

The Vision 2030 demon­strates that tra­di­tion­al indus­tries, with inno­va­tion and bold entre­pre­neur­ship, can build a resilient, future-proof indus­tri­al land­scape.

5. CarTexEurope Stakeholder Landscape

Car­TexEu­rope cat­e­go­rizes stake­hold­ers into four main groups:

1. Indus­tri­al Play­ers: Tex­tile pro­duc­ers, fin­ish­ers, tech­ni­cal tex­tile man­u­fac­tur­ers, auto­mo­tive sup­pli­ers.
2. Pub­lic Insti­tu­tions: Eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment agen­cies, envi­ron­men­tal author­i­ties, edu­ca­tion, and research fund­ing bod­ies.
3. Acad­e­mia and Research: Uni­ver­si­ties, research cen­ters, inno­va­tion hubs.
4. Asso­ci­a­tions: Trade unions and indus­try asso­ci­a­tions.

6. Strategic Guidance for Companies

The Car­TexEu­rope project iden­ti­fies four pri­ma­ry strate­gic paths for tex­tile com­pa­nies:

• Con­ti­nu­ity with­in Auto­mo­tive Sup­ply Chains: Com­pa­nies main­tain­ing strong inte­gra­tion must focus on effi­cien­cy, process opti­miza­tion, and inter­na­tion­al net­work par­tic­i­pa­tion.
• Spe­cial­iza­tion in Glob­al Nich­es: Com­pa­nies must tar­get high-val­ue nich­es (avi­a­tion, health­care) with tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions, brand-dri­ven mar­ket posi­tion­ing, and pre­mi­um ser­vice mod­els.
• Region­al Auton­o­my through DAOs: Com­pa­nies will devel­op decen­tral­ized, self- suf­fi­cient net­works, empha­siz­ing Euro­pean mar­kets and cir­cu­lar econ­o­my prin­ci­ples (Refur­bish, Recy­cle, Repair, Replace).
• Alliances and Ver­ti­cal­iza­tion: Com­pa­nies will engage in inter­na­tion­al alliances, joint ven­tures, and merg­ers to ensure sur­vival and com­pet­i­tive­ness.

The era of “busi­ness as usu­al” is over. Com­pa­nies must adapt rapid­ly or risk extinc­tion.

7. Strategic Guidance for Research Institutions

By 2030, research insti­tu­tions must move beyond sub­sidy-dri­ven mod­els to mar­ket-ori­ent­ed col­lab­o­ra­tion with busi­ness­es. Key ini­tia­tives include:

• Coop­er­a­tive Pro­duc­tion Net­works: Shared use of high-tech pro­duc­tion facil­i­ties.
• Shared Work­force Mod­els: Pro­vid­ing engi­neer­ing and tech­ni­cal exper­tise flex­i­bly across mul­ti­ple firms.
• Sup­ply Chain Man­age­ment Ser­vices: Tran­si­tion­ing from pure research to prac­ti­cal indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions.

Only mar­ket-rel­e­vant research ini­tia­tives will jus­ti­fy their exis­tence amid glob­al com­pe­ti­tion.

8. Strategic Guidance for Policymakers and Associations

Europe’s pol­i­cy land­scape must facil­i­tate tex­tile sec­tor trans­for­ma­tion through:

• Tax and Reg­u­la­to­ry Relief: Reduc­ing the tax­a­tion bur­den on labor, incen­tiviz­ing domes­tic pro­duc­tion.
• Invest­ment Incen­tives: Sup­port­ing sus­tain­able tech­nol­o­gy invest­ments and mod­ern man­u­fac­tur­ing.
• Euro­pean Trade Poli­cies: Estab­lish­ing fair com­pe­ti­tion frame­works through selec­tive tar­iffs and pro­mot­ing region­al pro­duc­tion.
• Nar­ra­tive Build­ing: Pro­mot­ing Europe’s image as a hub for mod­ern, sus­tain­able indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion.

Europe must act deci­sive­ly to cre­ate the con­di­tions for vibrant, future-proof tex­tile indus­tries.

9. Strategic Guidance for Education and Training Providers

By 2030, edu­ca­tion and train­ing providers must:

• Devel­op flex­i­ble, mod­u­lar pro­grams aligned with indus­tri­al needs.
• Fos­ter dual edu­ca­tion sys­tems com­bin­ing prac­ti­cal and the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge.
• Intro­duce coop­er­a­tive mod­els like “Shared Train­ing Ser­vices” across com­pa­nies.
• Inte­grate dig­i­tal­iza­tion, AI, and agile method­olo­gies into cur­ric­u­la.

Future work­ers must be equipped with a wide skill set for both tech­ni­cal and admin­is­tra­tive roles.

10. CarTexEurope Tomorrow: Automotive as One of Many Pillars

By 2030, the Euro­pean tex­tile indus­try will be small­er but stronger — more pro­duc­tive, effi­cient, and resilient. Com­pa­nies that embrace dig­i­tal­iza­tion, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and new mobil­i­ty mar­kets will thrive.

Key areas of action:

• Pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and Inno­va­tion: Pro­vid­ing ver­ti­cal­ly inte­grat­ed, high-val­ue solu­tions for emerg­ing mar­kets.
• Effi­cient and Resilient Sup­ply Chains: Build­ing diver­si­fied net­works across Europe and glob­al­ly.
• Future-Ready Work­force: Adopt­ing “New Work” prac­tices, life­long learn­ing, and glob­al tal­ent attrac­tion.
• Coop­er­a­tion and Start­up Col­lab­o­ra­tion: Essen­tial for dri­ving inno­va­tion and main­tain­ing com­pet­i­tive­ness.

Trans­for­ma­tion is inevitable. Europe must act bold­ly to secure lead­er­ship posi­tions in glob­al mar­kets.

11. Project Structure: CarTexEurope Work Packages

Car­TexEu­rope’s strate­gic foun­da­tion is struc­tured through:

• Work Pack­age 1/2: Base­line analy­sis of Europe’s auto­mo­tive tex­tile sup­ply chains.
• Work Pack­age 3: Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of key suc­cess fac­tors and bar­ri­ers.
• Work Pack­age 4: Stake­hold­er engage­ment and dia­logue pro­mo­tion.
• Work Pack­age 5: Sce­nario devel­op­ment for future path­ways.
• Work Pack­age 6: Com­pi­la­tion of strate­gic guid­ance papers and action rec­om­men­da­tions.

The project’s ulti­mate goal: secur­ing long-term com­pet­i­tive­ness, employ­ment, and inno­va­tion with­in Europe’s tex­tile auto­mo­tive sup­ply chains.