In 2026 the automotive sector balances slower traditional demand with rapid EV powertrain growth, intense cost pressure, and critical material-security risk — particularly rare earths and battery-grade minerals — which increases forecast error, shortens product windows, and stresses supplier tiers.
The brief covers four risk drivers (electrification, critical minerals, cost and tariff volatility, supplier margin squeeze) and six supply chain challenges, from the multi-tier visibility gap and JIT/JIS fragility to part complexity of 20,000–30,000 parts per vehicle and sustainability compliance. It maps each to SAP: Ariba and Business Network for collaboration, Ariba with Analytics Cloud for supplier risk, IBP for planning, SAP ERP Cloud with EWM and TM for execution, Product Footprint Management for sustainability, and BTP with Business AI for extensions.
It then contrasts the needs of Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers, cites public results such as 10–25% safety stock reduction, 5–10 point OTIF improvement, and 20–40% fewer manual order exceptions, with Bosch and Continental examples, and lays out a 90-day pilot for JIT parts with one OEM, two Tier-1s, and four Tier-2 suppliers.
The full brief is available above as a PDF. For the four-page summary see the "Automotive Industry Fact Sheet 2026: SAP Cloud Solutions for Automotive Supply Chains", and for the complete 14-page deck see "Automotive Industry Overview 2026: EV Growth, Critical Minerals, and Multi-Tier Supply Chains" in the Resource Library.