Where In the World?
When I look out over the busy city streets, I often am left asking the question: where on earth do all these new cars keep coming from? Did you know that around the world there are over 70 million new passenger cars produced every year? If you break that down further, you could say that around the world 191,000 new cars are made every day. Literally, where on earth are the cars being made up? And, which country produces the most cars?
You may already be in the know, but China is the greatest producer of cars. Over a quarter of the world’s new cars, that are produced in a year, are made in China. This number over doubles that of the second biggest new car manufacturer: Japan.
Why such the big numbers from China? China continues to grow its economy; and where there is more money for spending, the Chinese people want to own their own cars. Most of the Chinese made cars are being sold locally in China; however, around 1 million cars are exported from China around the globe. You may be familiar with Chery and Great Wall vehicles that are sold here in Australia. Export sales for China are still much lower compared with other countries, but China’s exported car numbers are continuing to grow rapidly. In Australia, new car sales would suggest that we all love our Japanese made cars, but let’s just get to grips with the fact that China is making cars at a rate that outstrips all other countries around our globe. So, it would be reasonable to suggest that in another decade or so Chinese made cars may be the top sellers in our country.
As far as the quality of product goes, Chinese made cars are rapidly becoming as well-made as cars made elsewhere around the world. Some predict that by 2018, Chinese made cars will be as good as any other equivalent model made elsewhere in the world. Chinese indigenous automobile brands include: Beijing Automotive Group, Brilliance Automotive, BYD, Dongfeng Motor, FAW Group, SAIC Motor, Chang’an (Chana), Geely, Chery, Jianghuai (JAC), Great Wall, and the Guangzhou Automobile Group.
So what about the rest of the world? New cars are made in Japan, Germany and South Korea at a high rate compared with other global manufacturers, but they still, individually, trail well behind China in production rates. The next tier of high automotive production includes India, USA, Brazil, France, Spain, Russia and Mexico. Iran, UK, Czech Republic and Canada produce around 1 million cars each year. Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, Argentina, Indonesia, Belgium and Thailand produce over half a million cars each year. Malaysia, Italy, South Africa, Romania and Taiwan produce between 250–to–500 thousand cars each year. Hungary, Australia, Sweden, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Portugal and Austria produce between 125–to–150 thousand cars, while the Ukraine and Egypt produce between 50–to–100 thousand cars each year. The Netherlands and Serbia produce between 25–to–50 thousand cars each year. Finland produces around 2,500 cars, while numerous other countries put together all add up to around 350,000 cars each year.
Toyota Motor Corp. has retained its position as the world’s best-selling automobile maker, saying that it had sold over 10 million vehicles worldwide in 2015. Toyota, Volkswagen and GM account for roughly a third of the vehicles sold world-wide. The top five car manufacturers who sold the most cars worldwide in 2015 were: Toyota 10.8 million, Volkswagen 9.5 million, General Motors 8.9 million, Ford 8.6 million and Hyundai 7.3 million.
Level 2, 9 Help Street