It seems that Germany no longer is at the forefront of innovation and technology and we might be in for quite a battle to keep up with China, the US and South Korea. Will we ever be able to catch up with them? According to this article it will be a heck of a challenge: "The vulnerability of the German auto industry will soon be on full display at a major highway junction near Erfurt. The Chinese conglomerate CATL plans to build a factory for electric car batteries smack dab in the middle of the country. If all goes according to plan, it will take up 87 hectares (215 acres), making it the largest such factory in Germany and perhaps even in Europe.
Construction is due to start in March or April of this year and is supposed to move quickly. Matthias Zentgraf, 55, the European head of CATL, isn’t leaving that open to doubt. Zentgraf was born in Offenbach, not far from Frankfurt, and has spent years working in the German car industry. On a laptop, he demonstrates how his company does things by showing images from the city of Ningde, in southeastern China, where CATL’s headquarters is located. As he types on the keyboard, buildings grow taller, just like the video game “SimCity.”