Summary
The global auto industry, once buoyed by pandemic-era shortages and high prices, is now facing significant challenges.
Major automakers like Nissan, Ford, and Volkswagen are cutting thousands of jobs and closing factories due to falling demand, competition from Chinese carmakers, and rising protectionism.
Chinese brands, offering cheaper and innovative vehicles, are gaining market share, pressuring Western automakers, particularly in China.
The shift to electric vehicles (EVs) is proving costly, with sluggish demand in some markets and government subsidies declining. Some companies, like GM and Toyota, are faring better with strategic EV and hybrid models.
An interesting thing I found out from this article is that the drop in demand is due to non-Chinese companies not being able to compete in the Chinese market. The incoming tariff war will only make this worse. Donald Trump may be thinking he is putting American Manufacturing first, but in reality he is cutting off American companies from the largest market in the world.
Doubtful.
He doesn’t actually care about America first, just Donald first. Tariffs are merely a bargaining chip that he can use to encourage bribes in order to get exemptions, or a cynical market play that makes him and his masters money at the expense of the economy . Or hell, the likeliest could just be Putin tugging on the leash to get him to hurt the US economy as much as possible, though if the energy markets bottom falls out, Putin might be in actual trouble
Part of the demand drop is that automakers aren’t making a product consumers want to buy. They got lazy during the pandemic, and now that the sugar rush has ended their “cutting out entire product lines that appealed to the common buyer” has come home to roost.
You can only sell so many $100k pickups.
EDIT: Added quotes to make the sentence easier to read. My grammar is weird.
They’re building to skirt regulations (efficiency requirements scale related to vehicle size) instead of just making the small reliable vehicles that almost everyone actually needs. The increased size of the average vehicle also leads some people to prefer larger vehicles themselves even if they don’t need them. Try driving a smaller car and see how much more often you’re blinded by headlights, both oncoming and from behind.
I don’t know what the solution is but I’m glad to hear car makers are not seeing massive success with the current oversized lineups.
I drive a Prius and the number LED projector headlights at eye level is too damn high.
Not just a product that consumers don’t want to buy, but one that most consumers can’t buy because of high prices and low wages.
I purchased my current car used. I plan to purchase my next car used. The new car I bought in 2016 will likely be the last brand new car I ever buy (I know buying used typically makes more sense anyways, but the point still stands).