Did you know that global car production has increased by over 60% since 1999? Or that China is now responsible for building about 25% of the world’s vehicles?
This fascinating infographic includes this plus plenty of other great factoids and trivia about the global automotive industry. Globalisation of car production has caused massive opportunities in some countries. India, for example, is one of the largest and fastest-growing manufacturers of automobiles in the world.
But there have been thousands of redundancies and economic crises in others. The city of Detroit, home of the US car industry for over 100 years, has been declared bankrupt as the ‘Big 3’ US car companies almost entirely collapsed a few years ago. Car manufacturing in Australia is being wound up altogether as every company has now pulled out in favour of factories in cheaper countries in Asia.
As car production volumes shift around the world, huge economic changes will continue to take place. Europe is struggling to compete with Asia in producing low-cost and volume vehicles, which is having severe effects for companies like Peugeot-Citroen, Opel-Vauxhall and Fiat.
Hyundai, on the other hand, is on the rise and is now the third-largest car manufacturer in the world. Great for South Korea’s economy, less so for the likes of France, Germany, Italy and the UK.
Car production secrets – where was your car built?
There is also a hidden side of the globalisation of car production that many people are completely unaware of.
A brand may be based in one country, but the majority of its car production may come from another. Most of the big players are building cars in China and/or India, and increasingly in South and Central American countries like Brazil and Mexico.
For example, you know all those cute and quintessentially Italian Fiat 500s you see everywhere these days? All built in Poland – unless you live in North America, in which case yours are built in Mexico.
The big three German luxury brands (Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi) build hundreds of thousands of cars in South Africa, USA, China and India. And you can repeat for just about any volume brand you can think of.
Where will it end?
