Monday, May 16, 2016

BBC NEWS Business Globalizing the car industry

Four Horsemen - Documentary - Official Version



Sheafali may represent the car consumers of the future.
Sheafali is very pleased that, at 25, she has just been able to buy his first car, a small Hyundai.
She plans to use the car to make weekend trips to the mountains to escape the heat of Delhi, where she lives.
Sheafali is able to afford a car because she works in a call center run by the US multinational Convergys - which is not only well paid by Indian standards, but also gives her the weekend.
It may be typical of the new breed of consumer - young, savvy and Asian - who represents the future of the automotive industry.



For many years, the model for the global car industry was the United States - the largest market for cars in the world.
How Detroit lost its dominance in the global automotive industry.
But now the US represents less than a quarter of the world industry, and its market share will decline further.
The US car market has already reached saturation point.
Stephen D Arcy of PricewaterhouseCoopers believes all the growth of the global auto industry in the next decade will come from emerging countries such as India, China and Eastern Europe.



And that means the fastest growing segment in the automotive industry will be the small car, the only size that will be affordable for the middle class growing in these countries.
There will soon be more cars in India and China than the United States.
Consulting firm Ronald Berger estimates that global demand for small cars, those costing less than 10,000 or 10,000 euros, will increase by 30 over the next five years to 18 million, including six million in the BRIC countries Brazil, Russia, India China.
Large companies developing cars at low cost Renault, Fiat, Peugeot, GM Daewoo, Hyundai and Toyota Daihatsu and Chinese companies Geely and Chery and Indian companies Tata and Maruti.
According to Professor Garel Rhys of Cardiff Business School, there are essentially two car markets - the United States, with its low fuel prices, low population density and large cars - and the rest of the world.
He said that only when the US pushed up gasoline prices to world levels will this change.


But attitudes are changing, even in the US, as consumers become more aware of environmental issues.
Ford launched a new electric concept car at the auto show in Detroit.
Sales of hybrid gasoline-electric cars are growing fast - and Toyota and Honda hybrids run on across their range.
Tough new ceilings on pollution standards and fuel consumption were introduced in the United States and Europe, despite protests from the auto industry.
The high fuel prices - and higher gasoline taxes - discourage consumers from purchasing large fuel inefficient sport utility vehicles sport utility vehicles.
All major car manufacturers now recognize the trend.



It is a business necessity that we find alternative sources of propulsion for our vehicles.
Bill Ford said the company now claims this approach and Ford recognized the change in the market with its Greener Miles approach.
And GM boss Rick Wagoner says he is really a business necessity that we find alternative sources of propulsion for our vehicles, because eventually the oil will be missed.
Ford and GM are far behind Toyota, with their flexible-fuel concept cars some years away from mass production.



And there are still big cost and technical barriers to the diffusion of alternative technologies, which can take 10-20 years to solve.
But in the long run, no major car company doubts that ethanol, diesel, electric, hybrid and even hydrogen powered vehicles will become more important in the future.
The automotive industry also goes through a profound revolution in its method of production.
There is nowhere to hide We are competing in every market and every segment.








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