At the VDA's annual press conference held in Berlin on 4 December 2012, Matthias Wissmann, President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), said that 2012 was a year of ups and downs for the German automotive industry which is influenced by the weakness in Western Europe.
However, Wissmann pointed out that the global markets balance for the automotive year 2012 is definitely positive. Outside of Western Europe vehicle business is very dynamic, and the German automotive industry has a disproportionately large share in that. The global passenger car market has also continued to grow in 2012 - by around four percent to 68 million units. This dynamic development has been supported by the Chinese market, which will expand by eight percent to 13.2 million units. The second factor driving growth is the recovering US market, which this year will grow by 12 percent to 14.3 million units, expanding more than China.
Wissmann told that with all the uncertainties, he assumes that the difficult situation in the euro zone will continue in 2013. VDA's forecast for the German passenger car market in 2013 is a volume of roughly 3 million new registrations.
Meanwhile, in the global market the coming year will see automotive growth continuing, said VDA president. The growth will again be driven primarily by the USA and China. In 2013 the US market will expand by five percent to 15 million units. The Chinese car market will experience six percent growth in 2013 to around 14 million new cars. In India VDA expect a rise of seven percent to nearly 3 million cars, and a similarly high volume in Russia. However, automotive business in Western Europe will remain difficult. In 2013, the association expect the market volume to total 11.4 million new cars - a fall of three percent.