International Automobile Industry Trends

Cars are getting expensive and polluting; but manufacturers have long refused to admit it as they are clearly obsessed by the increasing complexity of their marvels. But today, the evidence is there. Faced with customers who sulk, haggle and plebiscite the cheapest and cleanest car mode, manufacturers have been forced to accept �mea culpa�. For several months, they hunt down the costs of any kind. Of the existing models and those that will be unveiled at the London Motor Show motor task is not easy. To save a few thousand Pounds, they can hardly play on the substitution of materials or components, productivity, and off shoring. But in the long term, manufacturers are well aware that their entire way of working that they will have to revise, from vehicle design to its distribution. In offices, the time will be tomorrow at the extreme simplification of vehicles and the use of common platforms for a growing number of models. In plants, it is the mass effect that is sought to delay as much as possible the differentiation between the vehicles. As for distribution, mired in a complex cascade of distributors and agents, it will be forced to evolve, despite misgivings.

Alienation of customers falling margins, increased competition: the price war raging in the car. To earn a few thousand Pounds on current models, recipes called simplification, standardization, outsourcing, pressure on suppliers is limited but effective. No doubt, the raw 2010 London Motor Show, which opens in October 2010, will be placed under the sign of the economy will be low cost and environmentally friendly or maybe it will not! The British manufacturers are tending to restyle their ranges but the low cost will increase slightly. Behind all or substantially all the innovations presented in London Motor Show, one thing in common: lower prices on low cost models and a green car positioned firmly oriented, environmentally friendly car available for responsible citizens.

In a saturated market, all car manufacturers are convinced that the price war raging in the low cost sector is not a bad time to pass. It is indeed a structural change. Consumers have become accustomed to bargain. Moreover, according to a survey, the evolution of automobile prices between 1995 and 2005 was almost two times faster than other consumer goods, and 1.6 times higher than inflation. But since 2006, the curves are almost parallel trend. And if manufacturers still had doubts about the sustainability of the phenomenon, their numbers are far from the harsh reality. There have been disappointments of this EA with a sharp drop is brands whose registrations have fallen. The competition has intensified, the customer is more demanding, and prices will drop further. Just to be convinced, to observe a mature market like US the struggle that will lead the GM and its Japanese rival has kept prices very reasonable and significantly lower than those in Europe. A recent study by the Wall Street Journal, comparing the sale price excluding taxes of some vehicles in the United States, Great Britain and Germany, indicated that the gaps are widening across the Atlantic. Manufacturers must continue to adapt.