The automotive industry is one of the largest sectors by revenue in the world and a engineering marvel. This industry is marked by engineering, design, technological development, manufacturing, distribution, sales & marketing and post sales maintenance of automobiles and motor vehicles.

The major types of automobiles are cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy commercial vehicles and heavy buses. For legal purposes motor vehicles are often identified within a number of vehicle classes including passenger cars, light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, multi-utility vehicles such as jeeps, scooters, motorcycles, mopeds, three wheelers, tractors etc. We can categorize automobiles on the bases of type of fuel consumption capacity as in gasoline, diesel, electric; alternative fuels such as ethanol and combined electric motor-heat engine drives and hybrids. Around the world, there are about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007, consuming over 260 billion US gallons (980,000,000 m3) of gasoline and diesel fuel yearly.

Electric cars or EV’s have been gaining a lot of publicity in the recent days due to their advantage of conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) automobiles, reducing air pollution, emissions and significantly costs lower on energy i.e. with respect to fuel to electricity. Hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) combine the traditional ICE with an electric propulsion system and this electric power train gives HEV’s better fuel economy than conventional vehicles. Some vehicles also use green alternatives like ethanol (flex fuel cars) and compressed natural gas (CNG) are also in demand both in commercial and consumer automotive markets.

Automotive industry includes car, vehicle manufacturers, component and automotive part manufacturers, re-sellers and after market services and parts replacement.

The driving factor for automobile companies is the increasing demand for automobiles due to increasing per capita income and economic growth.

Automotive Industry Current Trends

Global vehicle ownership per capita in 2010 was 148 vehicles in operation per 1000 people. The United States has the largest fleet of motor vehicles in the world, with 239.8 million by 2010. China has the second largest automobile fleet in the world, with slightly more than 78 million vehicles and since 2009 and has became the world's largest new car market.

It is common for automobile manufacturers to hold stakes in other automobile manufacturers. The global production of commercial vehicles would be 77,857,705 a change in production by 26%. The major countries into automobile manufacture are US, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, India and Spain.

Automobile Industry of US was flooded with foreign automobile companies, especially those of Japan and Germany after the World War II. As the developed markets are getting saturated, world auto industry is now focused on developing markets of South America, Asia and Eastern Europe not to forget the special emphasis on BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

Considering the stiff competition global leaders should adopt the following measures like reducing the selling prices of cars manufactured in their factories, improving the level of after sales service to keep customers satisfied and by opening manufacturing factories in developing nations to reduce cost of production as well as save shipping charges and thereby enhancing prompt delivery of auto units.

Major Automotive Industry Players

The major automobile manufacturers are Toyota, GM, Volkswagen, Hyundai Motors, Ford, Nissan, Honda, PSA, Suzuki, Renault, Fiat, Daimler AG, Chrysler, BMW, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Chana Automobile and Tata Motors.

According to International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA), the top vehicle manufacturing groups by volumes are Toyota Motor Corporation, General Motors Company, Volkswagen Group AG, Hyundai Kia Automotive Group, Ford Motor Company, Nissan, Honda Motor Company, PSA Peugeot Citroën S.A., Suzuki Motor Corporation, Renault, Fiat S.p.A, Daimler AG, Chrysler Group, LLC and BMW AG.