The Global Automotive Industry

The automotive industry is still one of the world's largest manufacturing sectors, but it suffers from being very technology-focused as well as being relatively short-term focused. There is little emphasis within the industry and its consultancy and analyst supply network on the broader social and economic impacts of automobility and of the sector that provides it.

The Global Automotive Industry addresses this need and is a first port of call for any academic, official or consultant wanting an overview of the state of the industry. An international team of specialist researchers, both from academia and business, review and analyse the key issues that make vehicle manufacturing still the world’s premier manufacturing sector, closely tied in with the fortunes of both established and newly emerging economies. In doing so, it covers issues related to manufacturing, both established practices as well as new developments; issues relating to distribution, marketing and retail, vehicle technologies and regulatory trends; and, crucially, labour practices and the people who build cars. In all this it explains both how the current situation arose and also likely future trajectories both in terms of social and regulatory trends, as the technological, marketing and labour practice responses to those, leading in many cases to the development of new business models.

Key features

• Provides a global overview of the automotive industry, covering its current state and considering future challenges
• Contains contributions from international specialists in the automotive sector
• Presents current research and sets this in an historical and broader industry context
• Covers threats to the industry, including globalization, economic and environmental sustainability

The Global Automotive Industry is a must-have reference for researchers and practitioners in the automotive industry and is an excellent source of information for business schools, governments, and graduate and undergraduate students in automotive engineering.

Paul Nieuwenhuis is co-Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research (CAIR) and the Electric Vehicle Centre of Excellence at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. CAIR studies economic and strategic aspects of the world motor industry. He was a founder member of the ESRC Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS). His main interests have been historic and environmental and publications have been in these areas, e.g. The Green Car Guide (1992), The Death of Motoring? (1997), The Automotive Industry and the Environment (2003), and the innovative Sustainable Automobility (2014) as well as articles and book chapters, while he contributed to the Beaulieu Encyclopaedia of the Automobile, which won a Cugnot Award from the Society of Automotive Historians. He has acted as an advisor to several car and truck companies, governments and international bodies and is regularly invited as a keynote speaker at business conferences.

Peter Wells is a Professor of Business and Sustainability at Cardiff Business School and Co-Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research where his work has ranged across spatial industrial development, economics, organisational theory, industrial ecology, technological change, transitions theory, business models and sustainability — all through an applied focus on the global automotive industry. He teaches themes of transport, mobility and business sustainability on the MBA and MSc programmes, as well as to a wide range of companies and organisations. Professor Wells has over 550 publications reaching academia, industry, policymakers and stakeholders through traditional academic papers and books, industry practitioner journals and events, internet publications and, more recently, webinars. His latest books are: The automotive industry in an era of eco-austerity (Edward Elgar, 2010) and Business models for sustainability (Edward Elgar, 2013).