George Leopold
Automotive DesignLine
EE Times
(03/26/2009 9:29 H EDT)
WASHINGTON — China surpassed the United States in 2008 as the world's second-largest auto maker and could overtake Japan as the top global car manufacturer in 2009, according to an industry watcher.
China manufactured 9.3 million cars in2008 compared to 8.7 million cars in the U.S., iSuppli Corp. (ElSegundo, Calif.) said Thursday (March 26). It estimates that Chinawill produce 8.7 million autos this year while Japanese autoproduction drops to 7.6 million.
"China during the last five yearsmore than doubled its domestic automobile production, while U.S.manufacturing has declined by nearly 50 percent," iSuppliautomotive analyst Egil Juliussen said in a statement. "China willhave the lowest production cutback of any nation and will becomethe auto production leader in 2009," Juliussenpredicted.
Asrecently as 2003, U.S. auto manufacturers were outpacing Chineseproduction by a ratio of 3 to 1. By 2008, Chinese production wasnearly 7 percent greater than the U.S.
Chinese production totals includepassenger cars and light trucks built by domestic manufacturers andjoint venture partners like General Motors, Honda, Toyota andVolkswagen.
Meanwhile, iSuppli said, thedecline in U.S. auto making is being hastened by the outsourcing ofa "major portion" of manufacturing of cars for the U.S. market toCanada and Mexico.
Ring