The Center
for Automotive Research held its 50th anniversary
Management Briefing Seminars event last week in Traverse City,
Michigan. The theme of the conference was "Competition
Rules!" and featured an in-depth look at the global automotive
industry, including current competitive trends. Kudos to CAR
for another fantastic MBS, despite the curveballs that Mother
Nature and her straight-line winds threw at the Traverse City
area.
One particular topic of interest to me was the Wednesday session
called "Global Strategies: The Maturing of China's Auto
Market" as I have been observing the
Chinese auto market for more than a dozen years. Over that
period, the Chinese auto market has more than tripled according to
Margaret Baxter of the Original Equipment Supplier Association (the
principal auto supplier trade group in the U.S.), overtaking the
U.S. as the largest market in 2009 and not looking back
since. At the conference though, we heard evidence of a
flat/challenging
