How Europe’s automotive supply chain is embracing digitalisation, collaboration and sustainability to drive agility and long-term success

Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and geopolitical shifts, Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain Europe 2025 focused on how to adapt and deliver together to co-create an agile, win-win automotive supply chain.

Supply chain leaders were keen to explore the challenges and opportunities facing the industry, including transparency and AI in digitalisation, improving flexibility and resiliency in the face of changing trade and tariffs, carbon reduction and sustainability, demand and capacity planning, and our new focus at the event of packaging as a competitive advantage.

Christopher Ludwig, chief content officer, Automotive Logistics set the scene for delegates at the opening of the conference. “At a time of rapid change, the most important asset for automotive supply chains isn’t just technology, AI or digitalisation – it’s people. The industry needs to attract, develop, and retain the best talent to navigate complexity and drive success,” he said. 

Amid economic pressures, regulatory changes, and increasing competition, particularly from China, Europe’s automotive sector is navigating a critical period of transformation. To remain competitive, industry players must work collaboratively to streamline logistics, invest in digital tools, reduce costs, and meet environmental goals.

From BMW and JLR to Aston Martin and Renault, manufacturers shared how they are investing in decarbonisation, embracing digital tools like AI and control towers, and strengthening their logistics partnerships. The transition to electrification, while promising lower emissions, is also driving complexity in packaging, service parts and battery logistics, requiring new thinking around standardisation, modularity and data sharing.

Empowering talent and diversity for a digital future

In such a volatile market, talent and skill is desperately needed. Emphasising this focus on co-creation, talent and diversity was a pre-conference forum focused on creating a more skilled, diverse, inclusive and equitable automotive supply chain hosted by Saba Azizi, head of service network and business development, EMEA Aftersales at CATL, Harry Kwakye Davies, senior global supply manager, and Martin Corner, executive director of supply chain management & logistics at Aston Martin.

This theme carried through the course of the event, with a panel on empowering women to make the automotive supply chain a leading sector in diversity and inclusivity. The panel – with Dr Gisela Linge, vice-president of global logistics at Autoliv, Jennifer Coulter-Lissman, CEO and president of NTG Supply Chain Solutions, and Melissa Atienza, director of supply chain, Europe aftersales at JLR – highlighted barriers that have kept women in administrative roles rather than leadership.

“We need different perspectives to tackle the complexities of today’s industry—it’s not just about gender, it’s about diversity of thought,” said Autoliv’s Linge.

Watch now: Dr Gisela Linge on the Red Sofa

A key takeaway from these conversations was that, as the industry integrates more digital strategies into operations, a diverse pool of talented people becomes even more essential. This is something we will continue to highlight at our upcoming Automotive Logistics Digital Strategies North America conference in Nashville from 9-10 June, where NTG Supply Chain Solutions’ Jennifer Coulter-Lissman will take to the stage to explore how to prepare for the digital transformation and ensure buy-in from management and talent.

Digitalisation and AI: From pilots to scalable tools

Digitalisation and AI were in sharp focus across multiple panels and hackathons. Speakers underscored the importance of high-quality data, predictive analytics and upskilled workforces to make digital transformation effective and scalable. There was a strong push for transparency, end-to-end visibility and proactive decision-making, especially in the face of economic uncertainty, volatile demand, and mounting regulatory pressure.

AI is transforming logistics execution, planning and exception management. Speakers from Autoliv, Schaeffler, and Kinaxis outlined use cases from forecasting and inventory optimisation to predictive maintenance.

Autoliv’s Linge warned that AI is only as powerful as the data it’s built on. Governance, training and data ownership are vital.

The automotive industry still has a long way to go in terms of digital strategies and AI adoption and is behind others in digital transformation due to its complex supplier structures and reliance on custom-built solutions.

Thomas Bartsch, senior industry principal at Kinaxis said: “We have been fantastic at piloting new technologies, but we struggle to scale them globally.” He said that breaking down silos and integrating digital tools across the supply chain is critical to achieving agility and resilience.

As well as continuing these conversations at our ALSC Digital Strategies North America conference in Nashville and later in the year at ALSC Digital Strategies Europe conference (26-27 November in Munich, Germany), we will also be discussing data silos, security and sovereignty in our upcoming livestream on 14 May (15.00 BST).

Register for the livestream now

Linge reinforced that digital tools are critical for risk mitigation and fast decision-making. “When tariffs change overnight, I need financial impact data in hours—not days,” she said, pointing to the power of control towers and predictive analytics.

Several OEMs said they are also investing in control towers and predictive analytics, as well as real-time shipment tracking, to mitigate risk and reduce firefighting.

Jean-Marc Carlicchi, vice-president, supply chain engineering at Renault Group, and Levent Yuksel, freight operations director at JLR, highlighted the shift from reactive to predictive logistics, supported by AI-driven network design and S&OP integration.

Agnieszka Kubiak, senior vice-president of logistics at Brose Group called for scenario planning, flexible execution, and fast, data-enabled decision-making.

Agility and collaboration in a volatile market

Geopolitical and regulatory uncertainty, including tariffs, protectionism, and supply disruptions, were continually highlighted as structural challenges. Alongside using digital tools to address these challenges, co-creation and transparency emerged as imperatives across the supply chain.

OEMs like Renault, Toyota, and BMW emphasised the need to move from transactional relationships to long-term strategic partnerships.

Chris Payne, global logistics director at GKN Automotive said there is a critical need for data sharing and two-way visibility with logistics providers to proactively manage these types of disruptions.

And Joost Dirkse, director of logistics at Harman Automotive, stressed shared expectations and real-time communication as foundations for proactive logistics. He emphasised the role of 4PL partnerships in providing this real-time visibility and process optimisation, adding: “Our 4PL isn’t just a supplier, we see them as an extension of our team.” 

Sustainability in packaging, decarbonisation and electrification

In the shift towards EVs and electrification, the need for co-creation and collaboration in decarbonising the supply chain was stressed by Nadine Philipp, vice-president of sustainability in supplier network, BMW Group. Philipp said that decarbonising transport remains costly, but BMW is gradually introducing sustainability criteria into its freight tenders and exploring alternative fuels and recyclable packaging. “Logistics measures today are still expensive, but we need to work together to drive this transformation,” she said.

Sustainability was also on the agenda during our new Automotive Logistics Packaging Focus, which included breakout sessions and workshops dedicated to innovation and collaboration in automotive packaging, such as optimising returnable containers, increasing sustainable materials, and pack density engineering.

We expanded more on Renault’s case study on this, with Olivier Cotillard, packaging circular economy expert at Renault Group explaining the OEM’s circular economy packaging approach.

Read more: Renault optimises logistics with circular packaging

Staying with some packaging-specific highlights, battery packaging emerged as a core theme, with calls for modular, reusable designs and better reverse logistics.

CATL, Renault, and DSV explored logistics infrastructure readiness and the challenge of moving defective or end-of-life batteries.

Safety, cost, and standardisation are key hurdles. Julian Brandt, research scientist at Fraunhofer Institute, called for early-stage packaging integration and smart packaging technologies to address this.

Look out for our upcoming thematic newsletter on packaging on 27 March to find out more. Sign up here.

New risks, new strategies: Supply chain resilience in focus

Europe’s automotive sector is facing seemingly ever-increasing challenges, as more “black swan” events are happening on a more regular basis. Alongside market shifts in supply and demand, steep competition, and evolving trade flows, data fragmentation and lack of standardisation are making it more difficult for the industry to collaborate, especially in emissions reporting and packaging regulation compliance. Short-term contracts and procurement models are clashing with long-term sustainability investment needs, while inconsistent regulations for EV components and packaging materials are straining planning for LSPs and Tier-1s. 

Overall, Europe’s automotive market is lagging behind China and North America in terms of growth and competitiveness, per insights from S&P Global and Schmidt Automotive Research.

But all is not lost, and these challenges can actually represent huge opportunities for the industry.

Technologies and digital strategies, including AI and predictive analytics, can improve resilience and enable more proactive planning with clear ownership and scalable use cases.

When packaging and green freight investments are reframed as supply chain enablers, they can be strategic assets in stiff competition.

Flexible planning models and shift from long planning cycles to scenario-based models can enable faster execution capabilities. And a diverse, empowered workforce is key to solving the industry’s most complex challenges.

Read more: ALSC Europe recap blog