“Carmakers should add on average €1,000 of content to automobiles to make them adjust to the new rules,” says Arndt Ellinghorst, an automotive business analyst at Evercore ISI. News that Ford plans to shut its Bridgend plant subsequent year, with the loss of 1,seven-hundred jobs, is just the newest in a series of blows for the UK automotive industry. International vehicle makers are increasingly competing with Chinese manufacturers who are also innovating with Chinese customers in thoughts. As the Chinese market is positioned for extra growth, producers will strategically focus their products on the needs of the Chinese consumer – reasonably priced, protected, passenger vehicles which are higher for the environment. Convertibles don’t readily fit that mold.
Even extra alarming was a 17.2% y-o-y skid within the sale of motorcycles – the primary means of motorised transportation in Indonesia – during the identical interval. Automotive companies have sought to quell the decline by slashing prices but this strategy has confirmed largely ineffective. Given the absence up to now of indicators of a rebound, it’s not surprising to see market analysts from Frost & Sullivan predicting an extra 4.three% contraction in whole automobile gross sales in 2016 (The Jakarta Post, 27/01/16).
Functional types of demand, nevertheless, impose construction on cross-elasticities between products. Such construction, when inappropriate, can bias the estimates of competitive interaction.
What exactly is the state of the auto market in Africa? Which manufacturers rule the roost? And how is Africa’s own local manufacturing and meeting business faring? Sherelle … Read More