Post: Overview of the Global Automotive Industry

Automobiles were born in the late 19th century and officially industrialized in the early 20th century. After more than a century of development, they have now entered the mature stage of the industry. The automotive industry is one of the important industries supporting the national economy and industrial development of many countries around the world. It has the characteristics of a long industrial chain, high correlation, wide employment, and strong consumption pull. It plays an important role in driving technological progress and leading the upgrading of the manufacturing industry.
According to statistics from the International Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales volume of the automotive industry maintained a stable growth trend worldwide from 2009 to 2017, with an average annual compound growth rate of 5.85% and 4.83%, respectively. In 2017, the production and sales volume of the automotive industry reached 97.3025 million and 95.6066 million vehicles, respectively.
From 2018 to 2020, the global new car market was affected by factors such as the slowdown in global economic growth and global public health events, resulting in a decline in production and sales of 77.6216 million and 78.7743 million vehicles respectively in 2020. After 2021, although there are still unfavorable factors such as poor automotive supply chains and recurring global public health events, the global automotive industry has begun to gradually recover, and global automotive production has reached 85.0167 million units by 2022.
Due to the rapid development of the national economy in developing countries, the consumption of automobiles by residents has significantly increased, and the global geographical distribution characteristics of automobile demand have undergone significant changes, gradually shifting from developed countries and regions such as the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea to emerging industrialized countries represented by China, Brazil, and India.
According to the International Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the automotive and automotive parts manufacturing industry also undergoes synchronous migration with changes in consumer demand. At present, countries such as China, India, and Mexico have relatively mature automobile manufacturing industry chains, with China showing the most outstanding performance. Since 2009, China has been the world’s largest automobile producer for 14 consecutive years.