A Characterization of the Modern World Automotive Market

The article is aimed at researching the current state of the world automotive market and trends that will determine its development. The automotive industry, facilitating the global economic growth in general, is a strategic industry, stimulating the development of technology and affecting the population employment. The number of cars in the world increases annually, however, due to the existence of differences in vehicle registration rules in different countries, it is difficult to determine the exact number of cars over the world. During the research period, the global automotive market showed a tendency to increase, one of the reasons for which is a gradual decrease in the cost of cars (in accordance with the average income of the population). To analyze the provision of the population with cars, the indicator of motorization (automobilization) of the population (the number of cars per 1 thousand population) is used, which depends on the level of economic development of the separate country. The world leader, which is significantly ahead of other countries in the production of cars, is China. The United States ranks the second, the third in the world ranking of automakers is Japan. The leader among the countries – exporters of cars for more than a decade remains Germany, the second place is held by Japan, the third place – by the United States, fourth place – by Mexico, increasing exports in 2019 almost twice compared to 2016. The fifth place is held by South Korea. The world’s largest importers of cars are the United States, Germany and China. The article provides a rating of the leading companies – manufacturers of cars. The first place belongs to Volkswagen Group, the second place is held by Toyota Group, the third place is taken by Renault – Nissan – Mitsibishi, the fourth place – by General Motors, the fifth place – by Hyundai Kia from South Korea. The main trends in the global automotive market are indicated as follows: increasing the production of electromotive cars and cars with a hybrid engine; use of autonomous car driving technology; increasing the volume of car sharing; use of technology for exchanging car information with external objects, including other cars; rapid technological development of car related software.