Car geography, how production and markets change

In the world in 20 years, China has made a leap forward of more than 23 million pieces produced. In the US, demand has grown. And the coronavirus has had different effects on the automotive sector in various parts of the world

From two million to almost 26 million in 20 years. The data relating to China is enough to understand how much the geography of the production of cars, commercial vehicles, trucks and buses has changed from 2000 to 2019. Scrolling through the tables of the study on the world automotive industry drawn up by Anfia, the Italian confindustrial association of automotive supply chain, this is one of the data that catches the eye almost immediately. In twenty years the weights and measures of all the main car manufacturing countries have changed, including Italy, but the exploit of China suggests a real “great leap forward”.

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Production

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In 2000, the first country in the world to produce cars, commercial vehicles, trucks and buses was the United States with 12,773,714 pieces. According to Japan with 10,140,796 units, Germany third (5.526615). China was eighth with 2,069,069 vehicles produced, Italy eleventh with 1,738,315 units. In 2019 China was in first place with 25,720,665 vehicles, second to the US (10,873,667 on the rise after the years of the subprime mortgage crisis), third to Japan (9,684294 almost stable since 2010). It’s Italy? Disappeared from this top 12. From 2010 to 2020, the weight of the Asian giant in the production of cars and light commercial vehicles grew globally from 21.7% to 26.8%. North America went from 16.3% to 18.6% thanks to the contribution of Mexico as well as the USA. That of the European Union of 15 countries went from 18.4% to 15.4%. Japan in 2010 accounted for 12.4%, in 2019 for 10.5%.

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the market

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And the question? After the crisis of 2007 and 2008, in Europe also followed by that of sovereign debt, the world market for motor vehicles (from cars to trucks) grew at an average rate of 2.2% per year. We went from 75,091,627 vehicles sold worldwide in 2010 to 91,489,863 in 2019 with an increase of 21.8%. The increase manifested itself in different ways according to the geographical areas. In the European Union plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein (EFTA countries) there has been an increase from 15,672,186 vehicles registered in 2010 to 18,450,922 in 2019 with an increase of 17.7%. However, when analyzing the individual markets, sales in Germany grew by 25.6%, in the United Kingdom by 19.6% and in France by 1.7%. In Italy, however, they fell by 1.5%.

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USA and China arm in arm

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Looking at the growth samples, in the United States the new number plates registered in 2010 were 11,772,526 while in 2019 they were 17,480,004, equal to a growth of 48.5%. Not least China with 18,061,836 vehicles marketed in 2010 and 25,754,482 in 2019 with an increase of 42.6%. As a percentage, there has been an impetuous growth of the new EU member states, 82% in 10 years.

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And 2020? Here’s what happened (so far)

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Although there is no uniform data in the macro areas of the globe by type of vehicle, it is interesting to see how 2020 has gone so far, with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, as regards production and sales. In the NAFTA area (Canada, USA and Mexico) in the first nine months the production of cars and so-called light trucks fell by 27%, sales by 20.1%. In China, the statistics concern only cars: from January to September, production fell by 12.4%, the same decrease for sales. In Japan, data on passenger cars cover the first eight months of the year: production down by 25.7%, sales down by 18.1%. In the European Union plus the EFTA countries, car production from January to June fell by 40.9% while sales from January to September fell by 29.3%.

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