World Sales Expected to Spike by 2009
Worldwide auto sales will escalate by 27 percent to 75 million between now and 2009, according to a report from J.D. Power & Associates. A total of 59 million vehicles were sold last year, of which 32.8 percent were in North America; 32.4 percent in Europe; 25.1 percent in Asia; and 3 percent in South America.
Powered by China, Asia will enjoy the largest growth rate over the next five years, representing 6 million to 7 million vehicles in growth a year, says J.D. Power chief forecaster Jeff Schuster. China will help boost Asia to a 31.6 percent piece of the global market. Europe will drop to 30.5 percent and North America to 27.6 percent. Another growing area, however, will be South America, expected to rise to 4.1 percent.
Further, J.D. Power's predictors expect sales of four-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles to mushroom from 24 percent of the market currently to 38 percent by 2011. Slow growth for U.S. sales is expected, with this year's 16.7 million rising to 16.9 million next year, 17.1 million in 2006, 17.2 million in 2007 and 17.4 million in 2008. J.D. Power also sees the worldwide capacity utilization rate advancing from 73 percent currently to about 80 percent in 2009. -- Mac Gordon
Via The Car Connection