Underdogs Morocco, Thailand and Romania each built between 500,000 and 550,000. Rapidly rising Malaysia, deeply declining Russia and steadily slumping Britain made 700,000 cars apiece. Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey manufactured roughly 900,000 each.
France just about regained its status as a producer of one million cars annually; Slovakia did astonishingly well to overtake it – just. There’s confusion/secrecy about how many cars Iran made, but based on its 2024 numbers, circa 1m is my guess. America produced 1.3m.
The Czech Republic (1.5m) and Spain (1.8m) each produced more than twice as many cars as Britain. Therefore, it’s time for an inquest into why our country has defied logic, lost its common sense and abandoned its industrial strategy (assuming it had one in the first place) by allowing the Czechs and Spanish to overtake us, when they have only a handful of manufacturers, and we’re blessed with scores of mainstream, small and specialist makers.
Brazil (2m) continued to punch above its weight, as did South Korea (3.8m), while an allegedly weakened Germany (4.1m) still looked fighting fit, and ambitious India (5.4m) chased and gained on Japan (7.2m), which has, I suspect, peaked. China (31m) didn’t merely hold onto the No.1 slot, it took undisputed ownership of it. Which country might eventually catch up with and overtake it? I don’t believe there is one.
As things stand, even the collective might of Europe, North America and South America can’t come close to matching – never mind surpassing – car factory output inside the scarily expanding, still in warm-up-mode nation that is China.
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