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The traditional big three i.e. GM Corp, Ford Motor Co and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group on the whole continued to lose market share. Their combined US market share fell to 59.38% in 2005, down from 60.53% in 2004. GM’s US market share declined in 2005 to 25.88%, compared with 27.2% in 2004. Ford’s market share was 18.3% in December 2005, compared with 19.3% the previous year. DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group continued to outperform its European rivals. Although sales declined by 2.3% in 2005, its market share was 15.3%, up from 14.03% in December 2004.

However, the Asian big three continued to gain market share.  Combined share of Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co rose from 39.46% in 2004 to 40.61% in 2005. Toyota’s market share was 13.0% in December 2005, compared with 11.91% the previous year. Toyota is preparing to open more North American factories and is confident of increasing its market share to 15%.

As of December 2005, GM remained the largest motor company by light vehicle unit sales followed by Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota and Honda in that order (Table 7.3) . However, taken into account the sales of all automobiles, then GM, Toyota, Ford, DaimlerChrysler and Honda lead the market in that order.

Freightliner LLC, owned by DaimlerChrysler, remained the largest manufacturer of heavy duty trucks not only in the US but also in Canada (Table 7.4) . The company is known mainly for the heavy duty class 8 diesel trucks as well as class 5-7 trucks. By the end of December 2005, Freightliner had the highest market share in class 8 trucks whereas International Truck had the highest market share in classes 6 and 7.

The composition of the US auto industry has changed over the past two decades with the Detroit’s Big Three, Chrysler, GM and Ford, continuously and slowly losing their market share to Asian companies like Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motors co, Hyundai Motor co, Nissan Motor co, Kia Motors co, Fuji Industries Limited, Mazda Motor Corp, Mitsubishi Motors Corp and Suzuki Corp. These Asian automakers collectively held 25.8% of the US market in 1999, which increased to 36.6% in 2005 and to 45% by 2007.

Performance of the European Automobile Players

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Aggregate car sales of the top five European companies (including UK sales) rose by 0.55% from 9.20m units in 2004 to 9.25m units in 2005. Volkswagen registered the highest increase in absolute numbers while General Motors registered the highest percentage increase in sales. Peugeot Citroen, Ford Motors and Renault registered a decline in unit sales. Volkswagen, the number one player in Europe, not only retained its position but increased its market share from 18.07% in 2005 to 18.93% in 2005. Similarly General Motors increased its market share from 9.82% in 2004 to 10.53% in 2005 (Table 7.6) .

Total Truck sales (including UK) rose by 12.92% from 2.06m in 2004 to 2.33m in 2005. Peugeot Citroen retained the number one position in truck sales but its market share fell from 17.81% in 2004 to 15.85% in 2005. Renault also retained position but its market share fell from 14.02% in 2004 to 12.64% in 2005 (Table 7.7) .

The top 10 performing brands of 2008 were Volkswagen, Ford, Opel/Vauxhall, Renault, Peugeot, Fiat, Citroen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Despite the global downturn in 2008, Volkswagen recorded strong sales and remained Europe’s top-selling brand. Volkswagen’s Golf was the top selling model in the 2008 European car market, with sales up by 5.3% when compared to 2007.

In 2009, Volkswagen retained its Number one position in the European markets with 21.1% market share, (half % increase from 2008), followed  by Peugeot, Ford, and Renault. Volkswagen registered the highest increase in absolute numbers while Nissan registered the highest percentage increase in sales. Toyota even after gaining on the luxury-car makers, its portion of sales in the EU slipped by 0.2% and it had a market share of 5% in 2009. The combined market share of BMW and Mini fell 0.7 % to 4.9 % in 2009, while Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands market share dropped 0.6 % points to 4.8 %. In 2009, Audi took over as the top luxury brand in Europe leaving BMW and Mercedes-Benz, previous leader, behind. Audi sold 612,393 cars in Europe, whereas Mercedes Benz and BMW sold 593,088 and 572,091 units respectively. Due to the government incentives like ‘car scrapping’, Fiat grew by 6.3% over 2008.

Analysts are predicting 2010 will not be a good year for European automakers, as car scrapping incentives have come to an end. According to Nick Reilly, the president of GM Europe, 2010 probably won’t be a good year for European auto industry and the sales may decline by at least 1.6 million units.