Study says China gets the biggest growth in automotive industry for the last 18 years

It’s 2019, and it seems like it was just yesterday that the cars rolling down the road in Metro Manila were as simple as they could be. It seemed like it was just yesterday that the radio in your car was all you needed to enjoy a pleasant commute. But now things are different, and the cars are so packed with tech features that even your power steering is electronically powered. Technology makes manufacturing easier, and the world after 18 years has now nearly doubled its production rate. Quotezone.co.uk published a study detailing the changes to production rates in the world, and serves as our basis for the data we are presenting. 

Take note that figures here scale to the global total of vehicles produced. While production in these countries steadily increases, percentages are presented to show the overall domination in the market, not actual numbers. So just because a percentage is down, doesn’t mean that production numbers are down. It just means that the manufacturing country cannot scale its numbers fast enough to offset to global production share. 

There has been a paradigm shift when it came to the car industry, especially in the realm of manufacturing. In the year 2000, the global total for production number was at 58,374,162, but fast forward 18 years and a massive 157% of the total volume has been added, resulting in a figure of 91,538,640 in 2018. 19 percent of all cars built in the last 18 years came from China. As is the case today, there are many brands that fly the red and yellow of the Asian nation. Notably, production increased substantially in 2008. 9.3 Million vehicles were produced during that year, and it increased to 25.7 Million after a decade. That’s growth from 5% to 30% market share in the span it takes a human being to get into the age of majority. 

While Chinese production skyrocketed, the rest of the world has been steadily declining or stagnating in its contributions to the global production. For example, in the US it has seen the biggest drop from the year 2000. From 22% of the global share the United States only manufactures only 12% today. Back in the year 2000 a little over 12 million vehicles were produced. In 2018, this number dropped down to close to 11 million, 10,984,636 to be exact. So less and less American cars are being produced stateside, now compared to before. 

Across the Atlantic, Germany used to produce 9% of the total market share in the world, but this has fallen to 6% on a global scale. That means that in the year 2000, about 5.2 million cars were produced by German hands. As stated earlier, production numbers in Germany are up from 18 years ago. Close to 5.5 million units were produced in 2018, which shows a marked increase in the total production figures. Though the German car industry is healthy, it isn’t enough to offset the exponential gains of China.

Japan meanwhile is also facing a decline in global share. The percentage fell from 17% to 10% in 2018. This means the land of the rising sun was home to an industry that produced close to 10 million units back in 2000. Fast forward to 2018 and we see that production figures are slightly down at 9.1 million units. This could be due to most Japanese brands getting their units produced elsewhere like in Thailand. 

It is undeniable that China is an absolute giant in terms of manufacturing. It gained the number one spot in 2008 in amidst of several countries struggling to get by with the credit crunch. A few factors could have brought about this as well. In the 1990s there was a ban in the Eastern country that disallowed the sale and distribution of imported cars. This was to increase the local development of the automotive industry. And back in 2008 there was a plan that sought to grow the automobile production rate that the country had, resulting in 48% growth. 

Worldwide production figures have stagnated save for China. Automobile manufacturers in the rest of the world haven’t increased their production figures in 2018. New emissions regulations have slowed down production facilities in developed parts of the world like in Europe and America. 

Source: Quotezone.co.uk