Autonomous cars and autonomous driving
Automotive
Driving the future.
Our lawyers work at the forefront of the automotive sector, providing an integrated global service to clients across the industry.
Currently, the industry is going through some fundamental changes. The opportunities are exceptional, but there are also challenges. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – founded more than a century before the Benz Patent Motor Car No. 1 took its first drive – provides cutting-edge advice to the world’s best-known auto brands.
Our automotive group has worked with more than half the world’s top 100 car companies and parts manufacturers since 2010. We understand that long-term success is about more than developing technology – it’s also about finding the right path through the legislative landscape.
Client successes
Advising a leading carmaker on a project to build a digital platform that connects its customers, suppliers and sales teams with a suite of apps.
Advising Volkswagen in a number of jurisdictions on civil and regulatory issues relating to emissions from its diesel engines, and co-ordinating related criminal investigations.
Advising a major European car manufacturer on all legal issues relating to its connected cars programme, including data protection, telecoms regulation, IT security, consumer protection and product liability as well as antitrust, sales and import issues.
Advising Formula One (F1) and CVC Capital Partners on the sale of F1 to Liberty Media for $8bn.
Advising the German government on its options for developing a country-wide network of hydrogen fuelling stations.
Advising Continental on: the carve-out of its powertrain business (now operating under the brand Vitesco), including cross-licence arrangements for technology and trademarks between the powertrain business and the rest of Continental group; and the acquisition of Veyance Technologies, the rubber and plastics technology specialist, from the Carlyle Group for €1.4bn.
Advising Geely on its investment in the German company Volocopter, a developer of electrically powered air taxis.
Advising TRATON (formerly VW Truck & Bus) on its capital market readiness, including its conversion into a societas Europaea and various corporate governance issues in the context of its IPO.
Advising Knorr-Bremse on its acquisition of Hitachi's commercial vehicle steering business in Japan and Thailand.
Industries
- Automotive
- Chemicals
- Consumer goods and retail
- Energy and natural resources
- Family offices and closely held companies
- Financial institutions
- Financial sponsors
- Governments and public sector
- Infrastructure and transport
- Insurance
- Life sciences
- Manufacturing
- Professional and business services
- Real estate
- Sports
- Technology, media and telecommunications
Our team
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Jochen Ellrott Partner
Tokyo
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Valerie Ford Jacob Global Co-head of Capital Markets & Partner
New York
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Takeshi Nakao Partner
Tokyo
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Dr. Stephan Waldhausen Partner
Düsseldorf
