New Challenges to the Automobile Production Systems in Europe

Abstract

The European automobile industry has never before manufactured as many cars as it does today1. Equally, private households in western Europe have never possessed as many cars as they currently do, whether measured absolutely or relatively (in automobiles per thousand inhabitants). In 1991, in terms of the number of registrations, the European Community market was almost comparable in size to that of the USA, with 140 and 145 million registrations, respectively. But the market in the larger European Union will greatly exceed that in the USA and dwarf the smaller Japanese market. With 37 million registrations in 1991, the Japanese market was approximately the same size as that in West Germany alone. Future prospects look good in view of the rapidly emerging east European markets. It would clearly seem that the earlier economic shocks of the 1970s have been splendidly overcome during the 1980s in Europe.