Car Production & Car Sales in 2013

2013 has passed, and another year goes by in the Car Industry. 2013 will probably be known as the first year to pass the record of 80 million cars sold worldwide.

In the first six months of 2013, the world production of cars had increased by 1,6%, which was mainly pushed by the production in China, USA and Brazil, on the other hand the top markets that fell were Japan, Germany and South Korea.

Here is a small analysis by country and brands to see how the markets are reacting to the new trends.

• Volkswagen continues as a global company, with reasonable sales in the main countries.
• Toyota continues with selling well in Japan, USA and increasing in China.
• Renault is clearly a French company, with increasing results due to their new Dacia models in emergent markets.
• Ford is clearly a global company with a focus on the US market.
• Chevrolet similar to Ford with good sales in Brazil due to the low cost cars.
• Honda has a similar trend to the other Japanese brand, Toyota.
• The South Korean company, Hyunday keeps the good work selling worldwide except for Japan after exiting their market in 2009.
• Wuling, a general motors joint venture, sells more than the main brands in Germany, that is the advantage of having the largest home market of the world.

China continues as a big growing country. and in 2013 surpassed the car sales by twenty million, after a growing rate of 15%.

These were the main trends.

• Volkswagen continues as the leader and even increased its share by 0,3. Curiously the most sold car is similar to a Passat, not the Gold.
• Wuling (joint venture of GM) also maintained the second place with a 7% share.
• Ford and Honda were the great winners of the year, increasing their share by 1% and 0,5% respectively.
• 2014 will probably be another great year, since there is a growing demand in smaller cities.

2013 was very similar to 2012 when regarding car sales, but it was the second semester that gave a boost in 2013 sales, after the recent elected prime minister decided it was time for "Abenomics" by Shinzo Abe. These were the main trends.

• Toyota continues as the leader with a 28,8% share, but losing 2p.p. when comparing to 2012.
• Toyota Prius lost more than 1p.p. of its share after gathering 6% in 2012..
• Honda increased their share to 14,4%, mainly due to the Honda N-One
• Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW are the most sold cars in Japan when considering foreign brands. Each of them has a share near 1%.
• Japanese companies have more than 90% of the Japanese car market share.
• VW Golf is the foreign car model most sold.
• The Top 50 models sold only has three foreign cars, VW Golf, Mini and BMW 3

Tesla has a different strategy from the traditional car brands. It is not selling in the conventional car dealers which can be harder to track the number of sales. It is estimated that it sold more than 6.000 units in California only.

The US market, second in the world and first by inhabitant is growing slow but it is growing and probably won't stop, specially since every economic indicator is showing good results. These were the main trends.

• The Ford F-series keeps as the top model sold in the US with a share almost of 5%.
• Ford F, Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge RAM gather 10% of the 2013 share, which means the demand for Pick-Ups keeps even after an increase in gas prices.
• Taking a look at the Top10 brands, there are five American brands, three Japanese and two South Korean.
• BMW, VW and Mercedes are part of the Top15 with a share of 6,7% combined. BMW and Mercedes increased their share by 0,1p.p. each one but VW lost 0.4p.p.

For all European countries the sales in 2013 were less than 2012 but there are growth indicator for 2014 with the recover of the European Union economy.

The main countries in Europe are Germany, Russia, UK, France and Italy.All of them with sales over a million, and there aren't other countries with more than a million sales. From this Top5 only the UK had an increase in sales in 2013.

Germany keeps as the leader economy and car market of Europe, favoring their home car manufacturers, specially Volkswagen.

• VW keeps the leadership with a share of 21,7%.
• Mercedes, Audi and BMW complete the Top4.
• The VW Golf is the most sold car with a share of 6,3% followed by VW Polo and VW Passat.
• German brands have more than 50% of the market share.

The Land of the Lada has not a favoring economy for selling new cars, keeping behind Germany even having higher population.

• Renault has a share of 7,6%, better than 2012 specially due to the Dacia models.
• The leader is still Lada, but with only 16,4% less than the 18,4% in 2012.
• As an open economy the brands that complete the Top10 are international. Kia, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Ford and Skoda.
• In the top15 there are Russian brands as Gaz and Uaz.

The growing market in Europe with more than 10% growth.

• Ford is the top seller, with the model Fiesta on the top.
• Vauxhall/Open and Volkswagen complete the Top3 with best selling models as Golf, Corsa and Astra.
• German brands (VW, BMW, Audi and Mercedes) gather 25% of the market share.
• The British brand Land Rover stayed with a 2,4% share.

France is home of three brands that are widely known, but they are not exploiting the benefits of globalization as their German neighbors.

• Renault, Peugeot and Citroen have almost 50% of the market.
• Dacia, Renault's brand completes the Top5 with a 5% share.
• The best selling models are compact cars, as the Renault Clio and Peugeot 208.

The growing economy of Brazil have seen their car market reducing the new cars sales, mainly to tight credit and weaker consumer confidence, a year before the World Cup 2014 and the protest against the money being spent on stadiums. In 2014 it is still to be expected the market trend.

• Three brands dominate the market, Fiat (21,3%), Volkswagen (18,6%) and Chevrolet (18,2%), curiously Fiat and VW lost 2p.p. of their share when comparing to 2012.
• The other main players are, Ford (9,4%), Renault (6,6%) and Hyundai (6,0%).
• Japanese companies, Toyota, Honda and Nissan complete the Top9. Nissan was the only that lost share when comparing 2012.

A developing economy with focus in Low Cost Cars.

• The Top5 is composed by Maruti (Suzuki) (43%), Hyundai (15,3%), Mahindra (9,8%), Toyota(5,9%) and Tata (5,7%).
• It is a market with a indisputable leader.
• Almost 80% of the market is composed by the Top5.

Canada, the tenth largest car market in the world has similar trends to the US car market, probably due the proximity and the open market between the countries,

• Ford is the best seller brand followed by Toyota.
• Honda, Chevrolet and Hyunday complete the Top5
• The pick-ups Ford F and Doge Ram are the best seller models, and there are 3 models in the Top 5 models that are pick-ups.

As you can see in this table, the USA is the top seller if we consider cars by inhabitant. There are several reasons for this to happen,

• Germany, Japan and USA are developed countries and most of the population is able to buy a car.
• India, a growing economy, has still lots of poor people, some with poor salaries and others live in the countryside, so they cannot afford a car.
• Germany and Japan have a better public transit system than the USA, so a car is not as necessary as the US.

If we take a look at the brands we can refer,

• Japan favors their home brands, Toyota & Honda.
• The US has a diversified market.
• VW,Toyota, Honda and Ford are present in the five markets and have a decent number of sold cars.