North America’s share of global auto production will continue to shrink through 2015 even as sales worldwide grow, a leading automotive researcher predicts.
Currently, North American automakers produce about 19 per cent of vehicles sold worldwide, according to Tony Faria, co-director of the office of automotive research at the University of Windsor’s Odette School of Business.
While worldwide sales are expected to reach 80 million vehicles in 2015, the North American share is “going to decline another per cent to 18 per cent by 2015,” Faria said. This would represent 14.4 million units.
Faria’s projection came as about 100 analysts, economists, politicians and industry followers convened at the University of Windsor on Wednesday to discuss the future of the auto sector.
Industry must ‘reinvent itself’
For many, that future is grim.
Ford Motor Co., Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Corp. reported sales declines in September, of 5.1 per cent, 42 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, from September 2008.
Automotive consultant Dennis DesRosiers addressed a conference of industry experts at the University of Windsor Wednesday.(Allison Johnson/CBC)
The auto industry “has to totally reinvent itself this coming decade to meet the needs of society,” said Dennis DesRosiers, the founder of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc.
“You look at GM and say ‘What are they doing different?’” DesRosiers said. “Yes, they cleaned up brands and cleaned up their cost structure. But are they positioning vehicles on the market differently than in the past? Arguably not.”
The outlook is discouraging for student Mario Tancoc-Marcu, a Windsor native who has spent four years at the University of Windsor in hopes of working in the auto industry.
“You see your friends and family getting laid off,” he told CBC News, “so your perception is that you are not going to find a job after you graduate.”
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