The Geography of the Automotive industry
In the past manufacturing cars was a heavy industry involving many different facilities and lots of equipment. A good example of this is Henry Ford's River Rouge factory in Dearborn, Michigan. This is the factory where the famous Ford Model Ts were made. The factory was huge covering about 2,000 acres with around 1.5km squared of factory floor space in 93 buildings and employing over 100,000 people. The factory had its own power plant, steelworks, docks, glass works and rubber plant. It was capable of manufacturing the cars from just the raw materials. The factory was located along the River Rouge to allow access for barges transporting coal from Ford's mines further up the river. This coal was used to fuel the steelworks and other facilities like it.
Leading up to the Great Depression the U.S. was the leading manufacturer of cars, producing 90% of the worlds 32,028,500 cars. However after WWII they were only responsible for 75% of the worlds cars. This is likely due to the increase in production of vehicles by other nations during the war. The U.S. remained the largest manufacturer of cars until 1980 when it was overtaken by Japan. Since then the two nations have been overtaking each other ever few years until 2009 when China took the top spot. Then in 2012 China nearly doubled U.S. production by producing 19.3 million cars compared with the U.S.'s 10.3 million cars.
Top 20 Vehicle Producers (2013)
Leading up to the Great Depression the U.S. was the leading manufacturer of cars, producing 90% of the worlds 32,028,500 cars. However after WWII they were only responsible for 75% of the worlds cars. This is likely due to the increase in production of vehicles by other nations during the war. The U.S. remained the largest manufacturer of cars until 1980 when it was overtaken by Japan. Since then the two nations have been overtaking each other ever few years until 2009 when China took the top spot. Then in 2012 China nearly doubled U.S. production by producing 19.3 million cars compared with the U.S.'s 10.3 million cars.
Top 20 Vehicle Producers (2013)
China | 22,116,825 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
United States | 11,045,902 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japan | 9,630,070 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Germany | 5,718,222 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
South Korea | 4,521,429 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
India | 3,880,938 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brazil | 3,740,418 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mexico | 3,052,395 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thailand | 2,532,577 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Canada | 2,379,806 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Russia | 2,175,311 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spain | 2,163,338 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
France | 1,740,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UK | 1,597,433 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesia | 1,208,211 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech Rep. | 1,132,931 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turkey | 1,125,534 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Slovakia | 975,000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Argentina | 791,007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Iran | 743,680 |
However the following chart shows that the largest producers aren't necessarily the largest exporters.
Rank | Exporter | 2015 Car Exports | % World Total |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Germany | US$152.7 billion | 22.7% |
2. | Japan | $86.1 billion | 12.8% |
3. | United States | $55.3 billion | 8.2% |
4. | Canada | $44.9 billion | 6.7% |
5. | South Korea | $41.8 billion | 6.2% |
6. | United Kingdom | $38.9 billion | 5.8% |
7. | Spain | $33.1 billion | 4.9% |
8. | Mexico | $32.8 billion | 4.9% |
9. | Belgium | $27.8 billion | 4.1% |
10. | France | $17.8 billion | 2.7% |
11. | Czech Republic | $16.9 billion | 2.5% |
12. | Slovakia | $14.1 billion | 2.1% |
13. | Italy | $14 billion | 2.1% |
14. | Hungary | $11.2 billion | 1.7% |
15. | Thailand | $9.4 billion | 1.4% |
16. | Turkey | $6.9 billion | 1% |
17. | Poland | $6.5 billion | 1% |
18. | Sweden | $6.3 billion | 0.9% |
19. | South Africa | $5.6 billion | 0.8% |
20. | India | $5.4 billion | 0.8% |
The automotive industry is the same today as it was in the past in the sense that large factories with lots of specialised machinery is needed. However it is much different to the past as robotics and computer systems have replaced many of the steelworks, glassworks etc. in factory complexes. This means that the factories are less tied to certain locations due to no longer needing certain materials such as large quantities of coal. They do still need good access in the form of motorways.