Latin American Auto Industry

It is worth setting out some of the quantitative changes that have taken place in recent decades. In 1950 the United States played a hugely dominant role in the international automobile industry. No less than 80% of the world’s passenger cars were built in the US. Yet, as new assembly plant and manufacturing challengers emerged, that dominance waned, with the US becoming comparatively less competitive, and struggling with high labour costs. By 2010 the US share of global auto production had dropped back down to only 4.6%, falling further to 2.1% by 2021. Big inroads were meanwhile being made by Japanese and German companies which by 1990 controlled around 40% of global auto production. A wave of spectacular growth then followed from the 2010s onward, with the emergence of Chinese companies. By 2021 Chinese companies accounted for 37.5% of global production. As they took a larger share of the total market, they squeezed many of the incumbent producers. Japan and Germany’s share of world auto production for example, fell back down to 17% in 2021.

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