China is a fast developing country with increasing income and it is also the biggest automobile market in the entire world. Every year around 87 million vehicles are produced globally and out of this number, China alone produces 22 million units. Compared to China, India produced around 3.7 million vehicles (2010) and yet India comes at second position in the global vehicle market. The year 2008-09 saw a terrible recession in most industries and the auto market was also greatly affected by this.
Global production of vehicles saw a steep rise of 25 million units after the recession got over. While global production will now rise at a slow pace from 2014 to 2021, China is really set to go out of its way to bump up its production capacity. By 2021, China is expected to make up half of the world’s car production, as claimed by IHS Automotive which is a strategy, planning, analysis and consulting company. The consultancy has also stated that countries like Russia and Turkey will see a fall in demand of vehicles.
The North American auto market will see a growth thanks to foreign investment while Japan and South Korea will lose out because Japanese and Korean car manufacturers are actually focussing on other countries to maximise profits. The European automobile market is also predicted to see a growth in vehicle production by 4% annually owing to exports to the US and China.
Currently, the top 10 vehicles selling in China are – Volkswagen Bora, Volkswagen Santana, Chevrolet Cruze, Nissan Sylphy, Volkswagen Jetta, Volkswagen Sagitar, Chevrolet Sail, Buick Excelle, Volkswagen Lavida and Ford Focus (in decreasing order). From this data, we can analyse that Volkswagen really has a strong foothold in China followed by General Motors.
