Global vehicle production to reach 78m by 2012

Automotive research firm CSM Worldwide has looked into its crystal ball and forecast that worldwide vehicle production including cars and trucks will jump to 78 million units for 2012 from the 2005 level of 62 million. The biggest region for growth is China, whose output is expected to increase 106.3% by 2012 with total production close to 10 million cars.

Other big movers include South Asia, which will see production grow 69%, predominantly because of growth in India. Central Europe and the Middle East follow close behind with production levels growing 68.4 and 61.2% respectively. According to the forecasts, North America and Europe will hardly budge with growth levels moving up roughly 5% for both. Surprisingly, Japan’s output will grow at twice this rate.

This means that we’ll be seeing even more vehicles sourced from these newly industrialized regions such as China and Central Europe. We may even see the manufacture of popular vehicles move into these regions as rising development costs and global competition force manufacturers to move offshore.