In the United States, modern car manufacturing has been historically dominated by the American companies including Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC, and General Motors Co. These three companies, known as the Detroit Three, controlled 95% of the market in the 1950’s and the dominance continued until the beginning of the 21st century. In the 1980’s Japanese auto manufacturers entered the United States, a decade later the Germans, and finally in 2000’s the Koreans. By the end of 2009, the Detroit Three only accounted for 45% of the total U.S. auto market. Another factor that had influence on this was constant fluctuations in gasoline prices and price sensitive consumers. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, gas prices hit record high averaging $3.07 per gallon in May 2007 and kept climbing up to $4.08 in July 2008. As gas prices kept increasing, consumer buying trends have been changing. In 2006 sales for SUVs, pickup trucks, and vans dropped 16%, while the market for compact cars rose by 3%. Unfortunately, the Detroit Three were not prepared for this since their...
Starting in the 1920’s America began its shift towards a consumer culture as the economic growth of the nation began to depend more on the proliferation of consumer goods than of capital goods. Even at the outset of this trend, the automobile held a significant place in the new consumer economy. The automobile, which was once thought of as a rare luxury, was being sold by the millions. Assembly lines were becoming more efficient, thus allowing cars to be made more cheaply allowing the price of automobiles to drop. The growth of the automobile helped stimulate the economy through its dependence on other industries such as glass, rubber and steel, which were connected to the production of cars. These automobile related industries created new jobs, greater affluence and more spending power for millions of American consumers. Even at the beginning of America’s transformation into the consumer culture of today the automobile was at the forefront this conversion.
This paper will focus on the future of the U.S. Automobile industry as the United States recovers from the worst recession we have experienced in the past 75 years. I will provide information on the following topics pertaining to the U.S. automobile industry:
The development of the American Auto Industry took place over many, many years, starting with Mr. Henry Ford building the first car in 1896. The industry has evolved, to what it is today and represents approximately 10% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the Bureau of Labour and Statistics, ‘the automotive industry includes industries associated with the production, wholesaling, retailing & maintenance of motor vehicles’. These industries are industries that have a tremendous impact on the U.S economy and can be directly impacted by changes in U.S. production and sales of motor vehicles.
In a capitalistic country with a free market, foreign competition is expected. This is no exception for the automobile industry where America competes with its various rivals. Competition from elsewhere encompasses that from Italy, Germany, and of course, the renowned Japan. The Japanese vehicle industry is especially competitive; according to the Automotive News Data Center, five out of the ten best selling vehicles of the year are Japanese vehicles. This data applies to the U.S. market over the first 9 months of the year. Expectedly, the automobile industry is an important and significant market. Motor vehicles are a major form of transportation as many people in the U.S. own at least one car.
The history of the automobile begins with the technological advances that occurred in the USA with Henry Ford’s Model T. Since then, the automobile market has had its ups and downs, but it has no doubt flourished into an industry that is the cornerstone of many economies. The world economic collapse due to the Great Depression caused consolidation in the manufacturing market. However, after World War II, an expanding highway network fueled by economic growth as well as television advertising spurred sales for car companies in many countries. The globalization of the industry accelerated during the late 1990 's due to the establishment of overseas plants and the merging of large multinational corporations.
The automobile industry is a pillar of global economy. Globally automotive contributes roughly 3 % of all GDP output. It historically has contributed 3.0 – 3.5 % to the overall GDP in the US. The share is even higher in the emerging markets, with the rates in china and India at 7 % and rising. China produces the highest number of automobiles followed by US and Japan (oica.net, 2015). The industry supports direct employment of 9 million people to build 60 million vehicles and parts that go into them (oica.net, 2015). Many other industries such as steel, iron, glass, aluminium, textiles etc. are associated with the automotive industry and resulting in more than 50 million jobs owed to the auto
The world of technology is ever changing and advancing. With the automotive industry in play technology is constantly surpassing what is available today with what can be done for tomorrow. Technology and the automotive industry go hand in hand with constant improvement to components of cars. Due to technology advancement there is competition within the car industry, especially between American car companies and European car companies. European car companies provide their buyers with innovative variety and revolutionary luxuries. European car technology is superior to American car technology due to their safety, entertainment, and luxury features.
BMW having high market share in European and U.S luxury car markets, started facing issues with launch product qualities and also facing a fierce competition from Japanese producers. Currently the market share was still stable but the rigorous growth of Japanese producers would affect BMW in future. These Japanese competitors had set higher standards of conformance.
Over the years, the U. S. auto industry's market has been experiencing fluctuations due to many reasons including: price, quality and foreign competition. General Motors Corporation (GM) which had been the leading car and truck manufacturer had been experiencing declining market share and facing stiff competition from both U.S manufacturers and foreign imports such as the Asian auto producers that included Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The main reason for increased foreign competition was that foreign cars were more fuel efficient, smaller, less expensive, and often more reliable than their American counterparts.
Automobiles are very important in today's society. They are a means of transportation and also luxury. The automotive industry is a 904 billion dollar industry.(Franco) Automobiles are everywhere and have been on every continent, they assist us in traversing long distances of land; road or no road. The designs of automobiles vary from manufacturer to manufacturer as well as their country of origin, and what country the said automobile is being sold to. There are also many different styles of automobiles and different countries, or areas tend to have a favorite automobile. The biggest problem with the majority of today’s automobiles is that they burn fossil fuels and we will eventually use up all of our fossil fuels and will need to find something else to power our beloved automobiles. Automobiles are an important part in worldwide commerce.
The United States employs over one million workers and 3 percent of the U.S. economy is represented by the output of auto manufacturers in the U.S. (Klier, 2005). An average of over eight million passenger vehicles is produced in the United States annually. In a report published by Young (2014), auto sales in the U.S. have increased by 9.1% since July 2013. The automobile industry is a competitive industry, with global manufacturers such as British Motor Works (BMW) and Mercedes among other manufacturers importing vehicles into the U.S.; consumers have a wide range of vehicle makes and models to choose from.
The development of the automobile in the late 18th century transformed the structure of society in the United States. Initially, cars were meant to give someone status in society, only the rich and privileged owned a vehicle. However, in today’s society, vehicles come at all kinds of price ranges making it easier for the average American to own his or her own vehicle thus, the ban on cars would change society drastically. Economically, the automobile industry significantly defines the economy of a nation manufacturing cars. “Despite the fact that many large companies have problems with overcapacity and low profitability, the automotive industry retains very strong influence and importance. The industry also provides well-paying jobs with good benefits, has heavy linkages with supplier industries (which gives it an oversized role in economic development), and has a strong political influence,” (industryweek.com). If cars were to be banned in the United States
"Outline what you consider to be the key features of the global Automobile industry, and discuss how the industry has changed in recent years."
Automobile firms like GM Holden, Toyota, and Ford decided to shut down their plants in Australia and shift to another country. The automobile industry ranks among the crucial significant business phenomena of the twentieth century and remains vitally important today. Other words, the world’s automobile industry has played an important economic role (Wynn-Williams, 2009, p. 2). It is now is one of the largest industries in the world, the industry of industries (Drucker, 1972 , p. 176). It can be seen that there exists a fairly wide degree of consensus among car industry commentators over a large number of issues. The industry has found it hard to adjust to recent challenges and is no longer much valued by the capital markets. The slowing down in car sales in the more mature markets such as North America and Western Europe similarly with the much faster growth of sales in the relatively countries of the third world like China, India. Consequently, this assignment firstly overviews Australia’s automobile market-the operations in Australia and then highlight both challenges and opportunities in China, a potential automobile market in order to suggest a way for Holden entering China’s market. The assignment is intended to investigate the competitive advantages of China and how China could attract many foreign automobile companies in short period. The assignment also uses a number of journals, books, reports, and internet sources to deeply understand the Australian automobile context as well as China’s context.