The AutomotiveINNOVATIONS Awards are presented by the Center of Automotive Management (CAM) and the auditing and consulting firm PwC. The experts selected Daimler as the most innovative carmaker in the world, followed by Volkswagen and BMW in second and third places respectively. Daimler can boast a total of 115 innovations for 2018/2019, including 47 world firsts.

Headed by Prof. Dr. Stefan Bratzel, the CAM has been evaluating the innovations of global automobile manufacturers since 2005. For 2018/19, it systematically evaluated a total of 1,329 product innovations from 30 international automotive groups with about 90 brands according to quantitative and qualitative criteria. This is the first time that three Chinese groups - Geely (6), SAIC (8) and NextEV (9) - were among the top 10 of the most innovative groups in the automotive industry. “We are currently experiencing the greatest transformation in the history of the automotive industry, with cars changing more than ever before,” explains Bratzel. “German automobile manufacturers are demonstrating significant innovative capacity in this important phase, which is also necessary, as new competitors - above all players from China - have made up a lot of ground technologically and are about to take over innovation leadership in some fields.”