Catena-X Reaches Turning Point: Industry Leaders Confirm Commitment at IAA
Catena-X is live. Catena-X is scaling. And Catena-X is here to stay.
At IAA MOBILITY 2025, Catena-X entered a new chapter. What began as an ambitious industry initiative in 2021 has matured into a live, global ecosystem that is now shaping the future of supply chain collaboration. The message from Munich was clear: Catena-X is no longer an idea or a pilot. It is the trusted industry standard in the making – and the scaling phase has just begun.
On the summit stage, leading procurement executives from BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Magna International and the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) spoke with one voice about the need for collaboration and the role Catena-X will play in building resilient, transparent and sustainable supply chains.
Some of the voices in detail:
Nicolai Martin, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Purchasing and Supplier Network, underlined that today’s challenges cannot be solved in isolation:
“The challenges our industry faces today are too complex to solve alone. Collaboration along the entire value chain is key and will enhance our competitiveness. With Catena-X, we have the opportunity to drive data exchange and digitalization along our supply chains. To scale it broadly, the participation of as many stakeholders as possible and easy onboarding are essential.”
Dirk Große-Loheide, Board Member Procurement, Volkswagen, emphasized that Catena-X will become a future requirement:
„Supply chains are complex, and Catena-X is a powerful industry-wide instrument to address these challenges. As a founding member, we are committed to digital transformation and will require our suppliers to make the same commitment in new contracts, supporting them along the way. Together, we build more resilient and efficient supply chains.“
Mercedes-Benz puts the focus on speed and flexibility, Gunnar Güthenke, Head of Procurement and Supplier Quality, explained:
“Mercedes-Benz is fully committed to Catena-X to digitize the supply chain, become faster, reduce costs, and act more flexibly. By networking with our partners via Catena-X, we can respond better to new market conditions. For example, we can jointly avoid bottlenecks and increase our speed. We are convinced that Catena-X will become the new standard of the automotive industry!”
The broader industry perspective came from Dr. Markus Bollig, Managing Director of the VDA, who stressed the importance of transparency:
„By increasing transparency, Catena-X allows us to identify bottlenecks and critical dependencies and to initiate measures for improved supply chain resilience.“
These strong statements underline a turning point for Catena-X. The foundation has been built over the past four years, productive use cases are live and delivering, and global pilots are underway. Now, with the backing of leading OEMs, suppliers and associations, the focus shifts to scaling adoption across the value chain and lowering entry barriers for all participants.
The resonance at IAA MOBILITY showed that Catena-X is no longer a vision of the future but a concrete reality – a collaborative ecosystem designed by the industry, for the industry. It connects partners worldwide in a trusted framework, helping them master the challenges of digitalization, regulation and sustainability together.
Catena-X is live. Catena-X is scaling. And Catena-X is here to stay.