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Automotive industry

Organizations involved with motor vehicles

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History

The word automotive comes from the Greek autos (self), and Latin motivus (of motion), referring to any form of self-powered vehicle. This term, as proposed by Elmer Sperry (1860–1930), first came into use to describe automobiles in 1898.

The automotive industry began in the 1860s, with hundreds of manufacturers pioneering the horseless carriage. Early car manufacturing involved manual assembly by a human worker. The process evolved from engineers working on a stationary car to a conveyor belt system where the car passed through multiple stations of more specialised engineers. In the 1960s, robotic equipment was introduced, and most cars are now mainly assembled by automated machinery.

For many decades, the United States led the world in total automobile production, with the "Big Three" companies, General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler, being the world's three largest auto manufacturers for a time, and G.M. and Ford remaining the two largest until the mid-2000s. In 1929, before the Great Depression, the world had 32,028,500 automobiles in use, of which the U.S. automobile enterprises produced more than 90%. At that time, the U.S. had one car per 4.87 persons. After 1945, the U.S. produced around three-quarters of the world's auto production. In 1980, the U.S. was overtaken by Japan and then became a world leader again in 1994. Japan narrowly passed the U.S. in production during 2006 and 2007, and in 2008 also China, which in 2009 took the top spot (from Japan) with 13.8 million units, although the U.S. surpassed Japan in 2011, to become the second-largest automobile industry. In 2024, China produced more than 31 million vehicles in a year, after breaking 30 million in 2023, reaching 29 million for the first time in 2017 and 28 million the year before. In 2024, China produced the most passenger cars in the world, with Japan, India, Germany, and South Korea trailing. This was achieved by Chinese car companies signing joint ventures with foreign manufacturers. From 1970 (140 models) to 1998 (260 models) to 2012 (684 models), the number of automobile models in the U.S. has grown nearly twofold. As of 2026, China releases 542 new models (road legal, production cars) every six months.

During the 2020s, European automakers faced increasing competition from Chinese manufacturers, particularly in the electric vehicle market, while adapting to the EU's planned phase-out of new fossil-fuel vehicles by 2035. Chinese brands such as BYD expanded their presence in Europe, while European manufacturers faced the costs of transitioning to electric vehicles. Volkswagen Group and other major European manufacturers responded with restructuring measures amid weak profitability and growing competition.

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