The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for 77 years, until losing the top spot to Toyota in 2008.
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue. It is also the industry with the highest spending on research & development per firm.
The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States and Canada. It was founded as part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and grew rapidly from 1936 to the 1950s. The union played a major role in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party under the leadership of Walter Reuther. It was known for gaining high wages and pensions for auto workers, but it was unable to unionize auto plants built by foreign-based car makers in the South after the 1970s, and it went into a steady decline in membership; reasons for this included increased automation, decreased use of labor, movements of manufacturing, and increased globalization.
Heinz Heinrich Nordhoff was a German engineer who led the Volkswagen company as it was rebuilt after World War II.
SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. Founded in 1955, it is currently the largest of the "Big Four" state-owned car manufacturers of China, namely: SAIC Motor, FAW Group, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, and Changan Automobile, with car sales of 5.37 million, 3.50 million, 3.28 million and 2.30 million in 2021 respectively.
Ferdinand Karl Piëch was an Austrian business magnate, engineer and executive who was the chairman of the executive board (Vorstandsvorsitzender) of Volkswagen Group in 1993–2002 and the chairman of the supervisory board (Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender) of Volkswagen Group in 2002–2015.
James David Power III was the founder of the marketing firm J.D. Power and Associates.
Carl Horst Hahn is a German businessman and former head of the Volkswagen Group from 1982 to 1993. He served as the chairman of the board of management of the parent company, Volkswagen AG. During his tenure, the group's car production increased from two million units in 1982 to 3.5 million a decade later.
In the automotive industry, the term Big Three is used for a country's three largest motor vehicle manufacturers, especially indicating companies that sell under multiple brand names.
The automotive industry in China has been the largest in the world measured by automobile unit production since 2008. Since 2009, annual production of automobiles in China exceeds both that of the European Union and that of the United States and Japan combined.
Lithia Motors, Inc. is an American nationwide automotive dealership group headquartered in Medford, Oregon. It is the third largest new vehicle automotive dealership group in the United States, after AutoNation and Penske Automotive Group. As of May 2022, Lithia operates 267 stores in 24 states, and 14 in Canada. Lithia Motors employs approximately 21,150 people.
SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd., formerly known as Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. is an automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Anting, Shanghai, China and a joint venture between Volkswagen Group and SAIC Motor. It was founded in 1984 and produces cars under the Volkswagen, Škoda and Audi marques. It is the second automobile manufacturing joint venture in China after American Motors and the first German car manufacturer to enter China.
Beginning in the later half of 2008, a global-scale recession adversely affected the economy of the United States. A combination of several years of declining automobile sales and scarce availability of credit led to a more widespread crisis in the United States auto industry in the years of 2008 and 2009.
The automotive industry in Germany is one of the largest employers in the world, with a labor force of over 857,336 (2016) working in the industry.
The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and, as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass production, rapidly evolved into the largest in the world. The United States was the first country in the world to have a mass market for vehicle production and sales and is a pioneer of the automotive industry and mass market production process. During the course of the 20th century global competitors emerged especially in the second half of the century primarily across European and Asian markets, such as Germany, France, Italy, Japan and South Korea. The U.S. is currently second among the largest manufacturer(s) in the world by volume.
This article provides an overview of the automotive industry in countries around the world.
Automotive production is a significant industry in Russia, directly employing around 600,000 people or 1% of the country's total workforce. Russia produced 1,767,674 vehicles in 2018, ranking 13th among car-producing nations in 2018, and accounting for 1.8% of the worldwide production. The main local brands are light vehicle producers AvtoVAZ and GAZ, while KamAZ is the leading heavy vehicle producer. Eleven foreign carmakers have production operations or are constructing their plants in Russia.
Volkswagen Westmoreland Assembly was a manufacturing complex located 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Pittsburgh in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, near New Stanton — and noted for manufacturing 1.15 million Volkswagens from 1978 until 1987. When VWoA began manufacturing in the unfinished Chrysler plant, it became the first foreign automobile company to build cars in the US since Rolls-Royce manufactured cars in Springfield, Massachusetts, from 1921 to 1931.
The automotive industry in the Philippines is the 9th largest in the Asia-Pacific region, with approximately 273.4 thousand vehicles sold in 2019. Most of the vehicles sold and built in the Philippines are from foreign brands. For the most part, the Philippines is dominated by Japanese automobile manufacturers like most of its ASEAN neighbors. The automobile production in the country is covered under the Philippine Motor Vehicle Development Program implemented by the Board of Investments. In addition, there are also a small number of independent firms who assemble and fabricate jeepneys and other similar vehicles, using surplus engines and drivetrain parts mostly from Japan.
