Catena-X network grows by more than a factor of five to over 1000 companies.

Five years after its founding, Europe’s industry-governed automotive data ecosystem is establishing the shared ‘trust layer’ for an industry-wide digital twin and industrial AI

1,069 OEMs and suppliers now exchange data through Catena-X – more than five times the December 2025 total
As of May 2026, 61 of the Berylls Top 100 suppliers were using Catena-X, supported by 73 certified app and service providers, 46 qualified advisers, and 10 core use cases
Economic studies model gross savings of up to €220 per vehicle and an EBIT uplift of up to 7%; a large-manufacturer reference case indicates €385 million in potential gross annual value
Live Catena-X implementations report potential quality issues detected four months sooner on average, data exchange with a new supplier established in five weeks rather than several months, and energy consumption reduced by 15%

Berlin, Germany, 21 September 2026 – Five years after its founding, Catena-X has reached operational scale. The number of OEMs and suppliers exchanging data through the network has seen a more than fivefold increase in nine months, up from 182 in December 2025 to 1,069 in September 2026. As of May this year, 61 of the Berylls Top 100 automotive suppliers were using Catena-X.

Two economic studies indicate gross annual savings of €150-€220 per vehicle across three Catena-X applications before investment and running costs, and up to 7% EBIT uplift across six applications after those costs. For a volume manufacturer producing 2.1 million vehicles a year, a combined reference model puts potential gross annual value at about €385 million. Results from live implementations – including earlier fault detection, faster supplier onboarding and reduced energy consumption – reinforce the commercial case.

The growth and economic evidence show Catena-X maturing from a standards initiative into essential operational infrastructure. Its value lies in the applications that trusted data exchange enables. Neutral governance, shared identities, permissions and machine-readable rules allow verified data – and increasingly autonomous systems – to operate across company boundaries while participants retain control. This distinctive approach creates the trust layer for an industry-wide digital twin and, ultimately, industrial AI.

Hanno Focken Managing Director, Operations, Governance and Scaling, Catena-X, said: “Modern industry needs a common trust layer that allows every company to verify who it is dealing with, understand the data it receives and control how its own data is used. Our opportunity in the AI era lies in combining generations of industrial expertise with a trusted data layer that lets companies – and ultimately autonomous systems – work across organisational boundaries while retaining control of their data. Making trust and governance executable reduces transaction costs and creates the foundation for industrial AI at scale.

“Five years on from Catena-X’s founding, shared rules, identities and standards now operate at industrial scale across the global automotive value chain, laying the foundation for an industry-wide digital twin of the automotive supply chain and the next generation of trusted industrial AI.”

Network growth and operating scale

At the end of June, active participation was 462% higher year on year, up from 105 companies. Catena-X defines an active participant as an OEM or supplier exchanging data through the operating ecosystem; association membership, a separate measure, stands at 195.

Modelled value and results

A study by Audi, Volkswagen Group, the Technical University of Munich and the Fraunhofer Institute examined three Catena-X applications and estimated combined gross annual savings of €150-€220 per vehicle before investment and running costs, identifying quality and error traceability as a leading value lever.

Accenture and Fraunhofer examined six applications – circular economy, energy-load management, collaborative engineering, demand/capacity management, quality management and condition/bottleneck management – and estimated an EBIT uplift of up to 7% after investment and running costs. Stoppage prevention, bottleneck management and demand/capacity management were the largest sources of value.

For a reference manufacturer producing 2.1 million vehicles a year, a combined gross-benefit model indicates about €385 million in annual value, or €183 per vehicle, before investment and running costs. The actual gains could be even greater : neither assessment included potential savings in regulatory-compliance effort reduction.

Companies using Catena-X are now reporting results from live operations that reinforce those projections. Application-level models indicate payback in 14 months for product carbon-footprint management, under 12 months for certificate management and just six months for quality management.

Results from live operations

A Catena-X quality-management implementation involving BMW Group, Bosch and DENSO has enabled errors to be detected an average of four months earlier and reduced the time required to integrate the first component from a newly onboarded supplier from several months to five weeks.

Ford, Flex and Micron exchanged verified primary product carbon-footprint data across three tiers. The calculated footprint was 46% lower than one based on industry averages, showing the difference access to primary data can make to carbon-accounting accuracy.

Koller Kunststofftechnik, a Tier 1 supplier to major OEMs, reports a 51% reduction in time spent calculating overall equipment effectiveness – a measure of production-equipment efficiency – and 15% lower energy losses after implementing a Catena-X-certified solution.

Europe’s automotive trust architecture scales across borders

In July, Catena-X, CAAM and VDA China announced the world’s first trusted cross-border automotive data ecosystem linking China and Europe, following a pilot between BMW and CATL. Zhonglian, supported by Cofinity-X, will operate core Catena-X services in China, with go-live planned for mid-November 2026.

AIAG, the Catena-X hub for North America, is applying Catena-X standards to carbon accounting and supply-chain traceability, while an Indian hub developed in collaboration with SIAM is planned for 2027. Together, the hubs provide companies with a common framework across international markets.

John H. Farrell, Member of the Board of Catena-X and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Magna International, said: “Catena-X is a long game and everybody needs to be starting now. The automotive industry is well into its digital transformation, looking to drive efficiency, take cost out and improve productivity. Catena-X defines the standards, defines the configuration and has the mechanism. With all that in place, the entire industry can go from top to bottom through the supply chain efficiently and cost-effectively.”

Extending momentum through the supplier base

Catena-X’s next phase will extend productive participation among smaller and mid-sized suppliers across the deeper tiers that form the backbone of the automotive supply chain.

Yanni von Roy-Jiang, Head of Procurement and Supplier Management, Mercedes-Benz AG, said: “The future of the automotive industry depends on trusted collaboration across company boundaries. Catena-X enables transparent and sovereign data exchange, creating the foundation for greater resilience, efficiency, and sustainable value creation.”

The €23 million Data Space Accelerator is available to support SME digitalization until the end of 2026. Eligible companies can receive up to €15,000 for onboarding and certificate management and the same amount for a second use case, such as product carbon-footprint management with verified data exchange.

Catena-X will mark its fifth anniversary in Munich on 15 October 2026. Its next-phase priorities include deeper productive use across more tiers and markets, interoperability between regional data ecosystems, and the development of standards for software bills of materials (SBOM) and trusted AI.

Full Catena-X State of the Network Report.

Note to editors

Catena-X is a non-commercial organization governed by the Catena-X Automotive Network e.V. association and brings together a coalition of OEMs, suppliers, technology providers, and industry bodies, including ADAC, AIAG, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Renault, Volkswagen Group companies, Volvo, VDA, TÜV SÜD, Fraunhofer, Amazon Web Services, Huawei, Microsoft, Magna and others. For a full list of association members please visit Catena-x.net

About Catena-X

Catena-X is the first end-to-end, collaborative and open data ecosystem for the automotive industry, connecting players along the value chain. Built on four founding principles (trusted digital identities, interoperability, data sovereignty, and industry governance) it enables secure, standardized, and sovereign data exchange across the entire value chain, from OEMs and suppliers through to service providers, retailers, and recyclers. The Catena-X association provides neutral governance to enable standardized, interoperable and data-sovereign collaboration and support efficiency, innovation and compliance across the entire data ecosystem. Catena-X is Gaia-X compliant and also serves as a model for Manufacturing-X initiatives, supporting the development of standardized data ecosystems in other industries. Founded in 2021, the association has hubs in the USA, China, Spain, Sweden and France and more than 300 individuals work in more than 40 expert groups to develop future standards.