VDA

VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie) is the German association of the automotive industry. The organization has been dealing with standardization, development and research in the automotive industry since 1901. In 1977 it started working on its own EDI standard, intended for the automotive industry (manufacturers, suppliers), far ahead of the competition. Unlike competing standards, VDA uses pre-defined lengths instead of segments and separators.

Each message type is identified by a unique number that defines its purpose.

The structure of the document dictates the way of identifying each record, its optionality (M – mandatory, K – optional) and how many times it can be repeated in the message content.

Although the standard is being replaced by the newer, more universal, it is still very popular in the automotive industry.