China is poised to produce more cars than Europe in 2013 for the first time, hitting a landmark in the country’s rise in the automobile industry and underlining the difficulties for the European vehicle sector as it faces a challenging 12 months. China is in 2013 set to make 19.6 million cars and other light vehicles such as small trucks compared with 18.3 million in Europe … In 2012, on the basis of motor industry estimates, Europe made18.9 million cars and related vehicles, comfortably ahead of China’s tally of 17.8 million…. With global sales valued at about $1.3 trillion a year, the car industry is one of the best bellwethers of world economic conditions.

According to the data, Europe will in 2013 make just over a fifth of the world’s cars—a figure that is well down on the 35 per cent it recorded in 2001. In 1970 nearly one in every two cars made in the world originated from a factory in Europe—which is generally recognized as the place where the global auto industry began with the unveiling of a rudimentary three-wheeler in 1885 by the German inventor Karl Benz. Car production in China in 2013 is likely to be 10 times higher than in 2000—when its share of global auto manufacturing was just 3.5 per cent as opposed to a likely 23.8 per cent in 2013.

Source: Excerpted from “Milestone for China Car Output,” Financial Times, January 2, 2013, p. 11. From the Financial Times © The Financial Times Limited 2013. All Rights Reserved.

Questions to Consider

After reading Milestone for China Car Output, consider the question(s) below. Then “submit” your response.

Question