What is Catena-X? The Automotive Data Space Explained
If you supply parts to a European carmaker, you have probably been asked a new question lately: are you Catena-X ready? For many automotive supply chain managers, the request lands somewhere between confusing and threatening - usually paired with a deadline to deliver a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) for a specific part.
This guide explains what Catena-X is, how it works, why it matters for your supply chain, and how carbmee helps automotive companies meet the Catena-X PCF requirements in weeks, not quarters. No data-space jargon, just the operational picture you need to plan your next move.
What is Catena-X?
Catena-X is the first operational data space for the automotive industry, a secure, standardized way for carmakers and their suppliers to exchange data along the entire value chain, from raw materials to end-of-life. Think of it as a shared set of rules and pipes that let companies share specific data (a Product Carbon Footprint, a quality record, a traceability ID) without handing their entire database to a partner or a central platform.
Catena-X is run by the Catena-X Automotive Network Association, a non-profit founded in 2021 and headquartered in Berlin. Its founding members include BMW, Bosch, Deutsche Telekom, SAP, Siemens and ZF, joined shortly after by Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BASF, Henkel, Schaeffler and T-Systems. Today, more than 200 organisations are involved, with regional hubs in the US (AIAG), China, Spain, Sweden and France.
Day-to-day operation of the core network services is handled by Cofinity-X, a joint venture set up by ten of the founding members, but the association keeps governance neutral so no single OEM controls the ecosystem.
Why Catena-X matters for the automotive industry
Three pressures are converging on every automotive supplier at the same time:
- Regulation: CBAM, CSRD, the EU Battery Regulation and the Digital Product Passport all demand verifiable product-level emissions and material data.
- OEM procurement pressure: BMW has made Catena-X registration part of its supplier onboarding process since April 2025. Other OEMs are following.
- Supply chain risk: Scope 3 transparency, geopolitical disruption and dual-use materials all require faster, cleaner data exchange between tiers.
Before Catena-X, every OEM-supplier data exchange was bilateral. A Tier 1 supplier might receive five different PCF templates from five different carmakers, all in Excel, all with different boundaries, all due on different dates. That model does not scale.
Catena-X replaces that mess with a single, standardized way to share data while keeping data sovereignty. You decide who can see your data, for what purpose, and for how long. For supply chain managers that means faster supplier onboarding, fewer one-off data requests, audit-ready PCF data, and lower compliance cost over time. Ford, Flex and Micron have already used Catena-X PCF reporting across a three-tier supply chain to lower costs and reduce emissions.
How Catena-X works
Catena-X is built on three ideas: it is decentralized, standardized and sovereign.
The data space concept
There is no central database. Each participant keeps their data on their own systems. What Catena-X provides is the shared semantics (everyone agrees what a "Product Carbon Footprint" means), the shared APIs, and the shared rules that make peer-to-peer data exchange trustworthy.
The Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDC)
The technical backbone is the Eclipse Dataspace Connector (EDC), open-source connector software that every Catena-X participant runs. You can run your own EDC, use Cofinity-X's managed onboarding, or work with a certified service partner. When an OEM requests a PCF, the two EDCs negotiate the terms (who, what, how long, what purpose) and then transfer the data peer-to-peer. The connector itself never reads or stores the payload. Tractus-X is the open-source reference implementation maintained by the Eclipse Foundation.
Use cases
Catena-X is organised around concrete use cases, not abstract data sharing:
- Sustainability: Product Carbon Footprint, Digital Product Passport, Circular Economy
- Supply chain: Traceability, Demand & Capacity Management, Business Partner Data Management
- Quality: Quality Management, Online Control & Simulation
PCF is the most mature and most demanded use case, and the one most automotive suppliers are being asked to deliver against first.
How carbmee and Catena-X work together for PCF
Catena-X gives the automotive industry a shared standard. carbmee EIS, the Environmental Intelligence System, gives suppliers the operational engine to actually produce Catena-X-ready PCFs without rebuilding their data stack.
carbmee EIS is a carbon management platform purpose-built for industrial supply chains, with deep coverage of the automotive value chain. For Catena-X PCF specifically, it does four things:
- Ingests ERP, BOM and procurement data automatically, with no spreadsheets to chase
- Calculates PCFs at part and component level, mapped to the Catena-X PCF data model and aligned with GHG Protocol and ISO 14067
- Uses AI for precise emission-factor matching, anomaly detection and data-quality scoring at SKU and transaction level
- Produces audit-ready PCF outputs that flow through your EDC to your OEM customer
The outcomes are what matter to supply chain managers under pressure. One premium automotive OEM used carbmee to calculate the PCF of key components in 11 days, including data harmonization. Across customers, carbmee reports up to 94% faster PCF creation versus manual methods and over 40% less manual effort on supplier data collection. ZEISS, working with carbmee, identified a 31% reduction opportunity on a product's carbon footprint using the same approach.
The simple way to think about it: carbmee handles the heavy lifting of PCF calculation and data structuring. The output is mapped to the Catena-X PCF data model and exchanged through your EDC, whether you operate it yourself, via Cofinity-X, or through a service provider.
Frequently asked questions about Catena-X
What is Catena-X in simple terms?
Catena-X is a non-profit automotive data ecosystem and the first operational data space for the automotive industry. It lets carmakers and their suppliers exchange data, such as Product Carbon Footprints, traceability records or quality data, in a secure, standardized way, while each company keeps full control of its own data.
Who founded Catena-X and who runs it?
Catena-X was founded in 2021 by BMW, Bosch, Deutsche Telekom, SAP, Siemens and ZF, joined shortly after by Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BASF, Henkel, Schaeffler and T-Systems, among many others. The network is governed by the Catena-X Automotive Network Association, while Cofinity-X operates the core network services as a neutral joint venture.
Is Catena-X mandatory for automotive suppliers?
Not by law, but in practice, yes. Major OEMs are making Catena-X registration part of supplier onboarding. BMW has made it integral to its procurement process since April 2025. If you supply a major European OEM, expect to be asked to share data, especially PCF, through Catena-X within the next 12 to 18 months.
What is the Catena-X PCF Rulebook?
The PCF Rulebook is the official Catena-X standard for calculating and exchanging Product Carbon Footprint data in the automotive value chain. It defines scope boundaries, allocation rules, primary-data requirements, data-quality indicators, and the exact data fields exchanged between partners. Version 4 of the Rulebook was released in September 2025.
How does Catena-X actually exchange data?
Through Eclipse Dataspace Connectors (EDCs), open-source connector software that every participant runs. The two connectors negotiate contracts and then transfer data peer-to-peer between the data provider and the data consumer. There is no central database. Each data provider sets usage policies that travel with the data.
How does carbmee help with Catena-X PCF?
carbmee EIS automates the hard part of Catena-X PCF: it ingests BOM, ERP and supplier data, applies Rulebook-compliant calculation methods, and produces audit-ready PCF outputs that map to the Catena-X PCF data model, ready to exchange via your EDC. One automotive customer calculated PCFs of key components in 11 days using carbmee.
Go Catena-X-ready for PCF in weeks, not quarters
carbmee EIS turns Catena-X PCF requirements into a repeatable workflow, built around the Rulebook, integrated with your ERP, and ready for your EDC. Book a 30-minute demo with our automotive team.
