Globalization of the Automotive Industry

Cole, D., McAlinden, S., Smith, B., Fulton, G., Grimes, D., Schmidt, L. 1998. The Contribution of the International Auto Sector to the U.S. Economy.
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Our study contains a comprehensive overview of USIAS sales and production of vehicles in the United States during the years 1982 through 1996. In 1982, USIAS sales consisted almost exclusively of imported vehicles (U.S. production amounted to only 90,000 vehicles that year). As figure ES.1 shows, sales of both imported and domestically produced vehicles rose sharply during the 1982 to 1986 period. By 1986, domestic production by USIAS firms amounted to 700,000 vehicles, and sales of imported vehicles reached 4.2 million. After 1986, however, U.S. sales of imported USIAS vehicles fell while U.S. production of USIAS vehicles continued to increase. As can be seen in figure 1, U.S. production of USIAS vehicles equaled sales of imported vehicles in 1994, and exceeded import sales in both 1995 and 1996.