Overall, exported automobile sales totaled US$797.3 billion during 2015, up by 4.1% from $765.9 billion in 2011. Those totals include international trade sales of exported cars, trucks, special purpose vehicles including fire trucks and work trucks like those used in factories and at airports.
Automobiles represent 4.7% of the value for all exported products in 2015.
Over four-fifths (84.2%) of exported automobiles were cars, compared to 14.1% for trucks and 1.5% for special purpose vehicles. Work trucks represent a much smaller percentage at 0.2%.
Exported cars increased in value by 5.4% while the value of exported trucks depreciated by -1.3% over the 5-year period.
Biggest Automobile Maker Export Companies
Below there are 28 of the world’s biggest automobile makers ordered by assets as of May 2016 based on data from Forbes company profiles. Shown within parenthesis is the country where each conglomerate has its headquarters.
- Toyota Motor: US$406.7 billion (Japan)
- Volkswagen Group: $246.2 billion (Germany)
- Daimler: $235.9 billion (Germany)
- Ford Motor: $224.9 billion (United States)
- BMW Group: $197.9 billion (Germany)
- General Motors: $194.5 billion (United States)
- Honda Motor: $154.5 billion (Japan)
- Nissan Motor: $147.4 billion (Japan)
- Hyundai Motor: $141 billion (South Korea)
- Renault: $98.4 billion (France)
- SAIC Motor: $78.8 billion (China)
- Peugeot: $53.8 billion (France)
- KIA Motors: $39.2 billion (South Korea)
- Tata Motors: $38.9 billion (India)
- Porsche Automobil Holding: $34.9 billion (Germany)
- Dongfeng Motor Group: $24.8 billion (China)
- Suzuki Motor: $23.2 billion (Japan)
- Mazda Motor: $20.9 billion (Japan)
- Fuji Heavy Industries: $20.2 billion (Japan)
- BYD: $17.8 billion (China)
- Mahindra & Mahindra: $15.2 billion (India)
- Isuzu Motors: $14.5 billion (Japan)
- Chongqing Changan Auto: $13.8 billion (China)
- Mitsubishi Motors: $12.2 billion (Japan)
- TRW Automotive Holdings: $11.3 billion (United States)
- Great Wall Motor: $11.1 billion (China)
- Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd.: $10.3 billion (China)
- Sinomach Automobile: $4.1 billion (China)
Eight of the world’s biggest automobile makers are headquartered in Japan, while seven are based in China. Both countries are highly populated meaning that their automobile manufacturing headquarters are strategically located to service both domestic and international customers.
In contrast, America is home to three automotive conglomerates.
Chongqing Changan Auto increased its asset based by 68.5% from 2015. Four other large Chinese automobile makers grew their assets by over 25%: SAIC Motor (up 39.7%), BYD (up 37.9%), Dongfeng Motor Group (up 29%) and Great Wall Motor (up 27.4%).
Indian vehicle manufacturer Tata Motors expanded its assets by 20.2% as of May 2016.
Perhaps more troublesome from an international trade perspective is the steep decline in assets for 7 world-leading car and truck manufacturers:
- Volkswagen Group (asset value down -44.9%)
- Peugeot (down -34.5%)
- Porsche Automobil Holding (down -19%)
- Mitsubishi Motors (down -15%)
- Suzuki Motor (down -12%)
- TRW Automotive Holdings (down -8.2%)
- Renault (down -4.7%)
Mitsubishi Motors and Suzuki Motor have their headquarters in Japan while TRW Automotive Holdings is in the US. The other four leading automobile makers are based in Europe.