China is poised to produce more cars than Europe in 2013 for the first time, hitting a landmark in the country’s rise in the industry and underlining the difficulties for the European vehicle sector as it faces a challenging 12 months.
China is in 2013 set to make 19.6m cars and other light vehicles such as small trucks, compared with 18.3m in Europe, according to projections prepared for the Financial Times by five forecasting groups.
The rise of China is even more striking considering the projections for Europe include not just the EU but other nations such as Russia and Turkey. In 2012, on the basis of motor industry estimates, Europe made 18.9m cars and related vehicles, comfortably ahead of China’s tally of 17.8m.