European Automotive Industry in the Century of Asia

INTRODUCTION The automotive industry constitutes a long-established and significant sector of the world economy. Indeed, experts in international economic relations recognise that the automotive sector is highly concentrated, involves significant international investment and links different industries. Car trade represents an important part of international trade in terms of its volume. Hundreds of technical inventions and innovative production processes have been or are being developed or applied in the sector, with the potential for use in other areas of human activities. The industry is undergoing a major technological transformation driven, on the one hand, by the development of digital technologies, which have partly transformed cars into “wheeled computers and data collectors” and, on the other hand, by regulations which, through various economic and administrative policy instruments, promote the substitution of combustion engines by electric motors or other alternative propulsion methods, particularly hydrogen-based technologies. The sector has changed its geographical focus, size, and importance since its inception. The current leaders in production volumes and the development of new technologies, especially in the field of electric mobility, are either Asia or China, which have outpaced the former traditional centres such as the US and Europe. The present study intends to offer an overview of the current state and development of the global automotive industry along the abovementioned lines, based on a relatively broad approach using quantitative data and policy analyses to determine how the different centres of the global automotive industry are shaping technological change towards electromobility. Chapter 1 introduces the global automotive industry and analyses the growing importance of and shift towards electromobility. The study focuses on the position of the European automotive industry within the global context, and this topic is discussed in detail in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 presents a comparison between the US, the EU and China, focusing on the regulation of technology development and the promotion of electromobility. Even though the present study is essentially an overview, its contents can contribute to the development of research on processes and phenomena in the automotive industry. We hope you enjoy reading it!

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