Asia-Pacific’s Light Vehicle (LV) production ended 2023 on a high note. The region’s production expanded nearly 10% year-on-year (YoY) to a record-high level of 51.8 million units thanks to the robust pace of production in China and Japan, and to a lesser extent, Korea and India. Strong exports were a key driver for

The Asian automotive market finished 2023 with phenomenal results. Total Light Vehicle (LV) sales in the region reached an all-time high of 46.1 million units (+9.3%), exceeding the previous record-high of 44.5 million units in 2017. Out of the twelve Asian countries that we tracked in detail, four countries broke th

It’s that time of year again – the time when we like to reflect on the previous 12 months and look ahead to the coming year. Last January, I wrote about our expectations for 2023, and they could be condensed into three predictions: sales would grow, fleet would account for a larger share of the market, and transactio

The EU+ truck market has been performing strongly in 2023, but leading indicators point to a slowdown in underlying demand drivers: EU industrial production declined by 2.4% in July and by 4.4% in August; meanwhile, PMIs and survey data are at levels that have historically been consistent with recession.
Nonetheless,

The Chinese Light Vehicle sales pace slowed slightly in July. Light Vehicle wholesales came to 2.37 mn units with growth of -3% year-on-year. At a component level, total Personal Vehicle wholesale volume reached 2.14 mn units, down by 3% year-on-year in the month. At the same time, the Light Commercial Vehicle segmen

Anyone who might have thought that Maruti Suzuki, the long-time market leader in India, was just going to sit idly by and give up market share easily – just because it is weak in SUVs – was sorely mistaken. The automaker is fighting back, and fighting back strongly, with a spate of SUV launches in quick succession.
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China has taken an early and substantial lead in becoming a battery electric vehicle (BEV) manufacturing superpower, producing just under two-thirds of all global BEVs in 2022. In a distant second place is Europe followed more closely by North America, accounting for 17% and 11% of global BEV build in 2022, respectiv

On May 2, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) announced that in the first quarter of 2023, the global passenger car market continued its recovery from the effects of the Covid pandemic. The supply situation in the supply chains in particular has eased noticeably, and the extraordinarily high order

The Indian market is roaring back. At the height of the pandemic, Light Vehicle (LV) sales plunged to a ten-year low of 2.8 mn units in 2020, a 30% decline, compared to 4 mn units in 2018.  In the last two years, however, the market rebounded strongly – indeed, so strongly that sales reached a record high of 4.39 mn

On April 26, International Energy Agency (IEA) announced, in its annual “Global Electric Vehicle Outlook 2023”, that in 2022, electric car including BEV and PHEV sales were 10 million and it is expected to grow by another 35% in 2023 to reach 14 million. It means electric cars’ share of the overall car market has ris

The post-pandemic period has been characterised for the automotive industry, perhaps above all other things, by the profound shortage of semiconductors. The effect on the new vehicle industry has been dramatic, causing global industry volume to be at levels we would in more normal times associate with a severe econom

Light Vehicle output in Argentina attained great heights over the course of 2022 reaching 554,000 units and achieving 23% growth year-on-year. This growth seems to paint a picture of recovery from the supply shortages plaguing the industry, but is there more to the story? Argentina’s pre-pandemic environment is also

The US Light Vehicle market faced another challenging year in 2022 hampered by inflation concerns, rising interest rates from the Fed, and continuous supply chain shortages across the industry. The electric vehicle space showed resilience as automakers rolled out their electrification strategies in pursuit of aggress

European truck demand remains elevated, even though the macroeconomic background has become less supportive, which was reflected in somewhat slower transport activity during the second half of last year. Moving into the winter months, concerns over rampant inflation, high energy prices and rising interest rates paint

Reported on January 19, 2022, the Malaysian automotive market, which was recently elated by the highest-ever annual total industry volume (TIV) with 720,658 vehicles sold in 2022, is projected to witness decline in 2023, before seeing tiny YoY gains in 2024 to 2027.
According to the Malaysian Automotive Association (

When we look at the performance of the global automotive industry this year, India (along with the ASEAN region) has been a rare bright spot, bolstering sales. The effects of the pandemic are gradually dissipating and leading to a rebound in GDP and private consumption. This helped drive pent-up demand, while also gi

“The EV inflection point is here and now!” said Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Cygni Energy, in his presentation at the Messe Frankfurt organised 2nd Annual E-Mobility India Forum at the end of last month.
The battery electric vehicle (BEV) market in India is clearly developing from the bottom up, with fast adoption by two-w