The 15 most important automotive companies in the world

The importance of the automobile is incalculable, not to mention economically. Automotive companies compete to be the best in: avant-garde, aesthetics, power, efficiency…. Meet the 15 most important automotive companies in the world.

There are several theories about the origins of this machine, let’s assume that it all started with the Fardier and the steam. Today, almost 250 years after that hulk that traveled approximately 4km per hour, thecarit evolves at all times, year after year it becomes faster, more efficient and more futuristic; the auto industry works and is profitable on several levels.

The journey has been long, the changes innumerable. Although speaking only of fuel, of automobile energy, after steam, gasoline has basically been the main one. That is the most important change that is expected. The race to find or perfect another source of power that pollutes less has already begun.

The Automotive industryin Mexico it ranks eighth in production and sixth in exported units. Before the economic collapse of the United States, 80% of production was exported; at the end of 2012, 36% of exports were directed to more diverse markets.

These 15 companies generate in sales more than 1.5 billion dollars and together they have a market value of 757.9 billion dollars. Here is the importance of this business.

Meet at 15automotive who best know how to “drive” their potential.

1. Volkswagen Group / Germany

(Number 14 of the list of the 1,000 global companies of Forbes Mexico)

Sales: $ 254 billion.

Market Value: $ 94.4 billion.

In 2012 Volkswagen sold more than 9.2 million units, which represents 12.8% of the world passenger car market. With 104 plants in 27 countries, 550,000 employees produce 37,700 cars a day that are sold in 153 countries.

2. Toyota Motor / Japan

(Number 31 on the list)

Sales: $ 224.5 billion.

Market Value: $ 167.2 billion.

Toyota Motor was established in 1937. In 2012 world sales of hybrid units amounted to five million. Which is added to the annual production that reaches 200 million.

3. Daimler / Germany

(Number 36 on the list)

Sales: $ 150.8 billion.

Market Value: $ 64.1 billion.

In 2012 Daimler sold 2.2 million vehicles. It also has a workforce of 275,000 people and operates in more than 200 countries.

4. Ford Motor / EU

(Number 53 on the list)

Sales: $ 134.3 billion.

Market Value: $ 51.8 billion.

Ford’s success is driven by a commitment of 166,000 people working around the world. Ford announced that it has reduced the amount of energy required to manufacture each vehicle by 22% in the past six years. The company plans to reduce energy consumption by 25% in 2016.

5. BMW Group / Germany

(Number 54 on the list)

Sales: $ 98.8 billion.

Market Value: $ 56.7 billion.

BMW Motorsport GmbH was founded in Munich in 1972. Sporting successes abound in BMW’s history, one of which is in Formula 1, in which it won the world championship in 1983.

6. General Motors / EU

(Number 70 on the list)

Sales: $ 152.3 billion.

Market Value: $ 38.5 billion.

General Motors Corporation was born in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan and in 1953 it began operations in Mexico. America’s largest automaker sold more than 4.85 million cars and light trucks in the first half of the year.

7. Nissan Motor / Japan

(Number 85 on the list)

Sales: $ 113.7 billion.

Market Value: $ 43.4 billion.

Nissan’s history began in 1933. For 2012, the Nissan-Renault alliance sold a record 8,097,197 vehicles in 2012, representing one in 10 new vehicles sold worldwide. By 2020 the company seeks to launch vehicles that do not have a driver.

8. Honda Motor / Japan

(Number 86 on the list)

Sales: $ 96 billion.

Market Value: $ 72.4 billion.

Honda Motors was founded in 1948. Beyond the automotive aspects, in 1986 the company built a robot with the ability to walk. In 2001 Asimo was born: a humanoid robot that exhibits advanced intelligence.

9. Hyundai Motor / South Korea

(Number 89 on the list)

Sales: $ 75 billion.

Market Value: $ 41.5 billion.

In 1967, Chung Ju-Yung started the Hyundai Motor in association with Ford. The company has Ulsan, the world’s largest factory where more than 1.5 million cars are assembled a year – the equivalent of one every 20 seconds – thanks to 34,000 people.

10. SAIC Motor / China

(Number 167 on the list)

Sales: $ 75 billion.

Market Value: $ 26.7 billion.

In 1955, the Shanghai Diesel Parts Manufacturing Company, predecessor of SAIC Motor, was established. In 2012, it sold 4.49 million vehicles; a growth per year of 12%.

11. Renault / France

(Number 175 on the list)

Sales: $ 54.4 billion.

Market Value: $ 20.3 billion.

Louis Renault and his brothers founded the company in 1898. In 2011, Renault had a presence in 188 countries and a workforce of 128,322 employees. That same year he filed 499 patents.

12. Volvo / Sweden

(Number 210 on the list)

Sales: $ 46.7 billion.

Market Value: $ 31.9 billion.

In 1927 the first Volvo series-produced car, the Volvo ÖV4, rolled off the production line on the island of Hisingen, Göteborg. Volvo employs around 115,000 people, has production plants in 19 countries and sells its products in more than 190 markets.

13. Kia Motors / South Korea

(Number 268 on the list)

Sales: $ 42 billion.

Market Value: $ 19.8 billion.

Kia was founded in 1944. In 2012, 2.72 million vehicles were delivered and it has a workforce of 40,000 employees in 127 countries.

14. Tata Motors / India

(Number 334 on the list)

Sales: $ 32.6 billion.

Market Value: $ 15.9 billion.

Tata Motors was founded in 1945 and since that date has produced more than eight million vehicles. It has 60,000 employees. Since 2004 the company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

15. Suzuki Motor / Japan

(Number 487 on the list)

Sales: $ 30.3 billion.

Market Value: $ 13.3 billion.

Suzuki Loom Works was founded in 1909 by Michio Suzuki. In 1954 the company changed its name to Suzuki Motor Company. In 2008, Suzuki opened its corporate offices in Mexico.

The drama of social (in) mobility in Mexico

While there is so much talk about a supposed Mexican economic miracle, there is a reality that does not change: the opportunities are not equal for everyone and that prevents the population with less income from leaving that condition.

José “N” is a recruiter for an international firm and is clear about what his clients are looking for: young people from the upper and upper middle socioeconomic segment, handsome with light complexions, graduates from private universities.

Among its clients is the subsidiary of an international bank, one of whose businesses is equity banking. Banks usually ask for young people with a profile similar to that of their clients, says José; that is to say, that they have the same lifestyle: play golf and have a good house. “It is not discrimination, but a marketing strategy,” says the young recruiter.

José’s selection is a reflection of a society with a marked differentiation of classes and his testimony is collected in the thesis of Terioska Gámez, an applicant for a master’s degree in Social Anthropology, which deals with the issue of exclusion.

MexicoIt is one of the most unequal countries in the world, where opportunities are not equal for everyone, in education and employment, or in access to well-being conditions, given that there is no universal health coverage and there are huge salary differences. For example, about half of the employed population earns less than 125 pesos a day (which costs a kilo and a half of meat), according to data from the first government report by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

This same document adds that the income of the richest 10% of the population is 21 times higher than the income of the poorest 10% (among OECD countries, the difference is nine times).

The problem is that there are no elements that indicate that this can change. The poor will remain poor and the rich will remain rich. Social mobility is a chimera in Mexico.

“Without investment in human capital and hard work, there are no opportunities for individuals to improve their position, which means that the poor will remain poor,” states the study Social Mobility in Latin America: A Review of Existing Evidence, by the Inter-American Bank Development (IDB).

Context against

Julio Serrano is a pioneer in social mobility studies in Mexico and is currently the secretary of the Espinosa Yglesias Studies Center (CEEY), which recently released a report on the matter.

His vision is stark: “A Mexican child who was born into a rich family is six times more likely to go to college than one who was born into a poor home. College is the most important determinant of income; without it, there are few options to go up ”.

The reason why education is free and accessible to everyone in most countries is so that it functions as an equalizer of opportunities, regardless of the social stratum in which people are born, says Miguel Székely, a researcher at the Monterrey TEC.

In the age segment between three and 14 years old, 96 out of every 100 Mexicans went to school in the cycle that ended in the middle of this year, according to data from the government report.

However, the education they receive fails the test. Elementary and high school students who took the link test last year scored between five and six in subjects such as Spanish and mathematics.

Access to the educationUpper secondary (baccalaureate) is limited and is also marked by social inequality. In the last cycle, only 66 out of 100 young people between 15 and 17 years old were enrolled. According to official data, more than 2.2 million young people of high school age are out of it.

And among young people aged 18 to 22, only 32 out of 100 enrolled in a higher education school or studied in some non-schooled or mixed modality, which means that more than six million young people in that age range will not do it. a race.

The circle closes in the labor stage. Employment surveys indicate that there is a differential of more than 70% between the income of those who have a degree and those who only have high school, and more than double that of those who only attended elementary school, says Székely.

People with more income have access to higher quality schools, adds the former official. For its part, the OECD, in the study Intergenerational Mobility in OECD Countries, argues that the degree of wage inequality in a country is linked to the level of mobility of income from one generation to another.

And the welfare state?

Without Social Mobility, the levels of well-being deteriorate and a vicious circle is created that perpetuates the status quo , experts say.

Social mobility is a part of the Welfare State, which provides conditions for citizens to access health, housing and education, says Terioska Gámez. “But when the State leaves that function to the private sector, the problem of inequality worsens and classes close around themselves.”

A society in which there are no opportunities for social advancement is conducive to antisocial and even criminal behavior. In such an environment, individuals who feel trapped and without prospects for improvement may manifest dysfunctional behaviors such as abuse and crime, since they do not have much to lose, the IDB warns.

A light on the road

Despite everything, social mobility is possible. Adrián Herrera is the living example that talent does not have a zip code. He is vice president and director for Latin America at Foreign Exchange Brokerage in TD Secu-rities , a division of the Toronto Dominion Bank, the second largest bank in Canada.

In 2001, the civil association Inroads, which supports young people to be placed in multinationals with a presence in Mexico, reached the job market of the school of Adrián Herrera, who by then was studying the third year of five years of Economy in the School of the specialty of the IPN.

Inroads was born in the United States with the aim that ethnic minorities can access management positions in companies. Came toMexico 17 years ago to attract Hispanics and offer them professional internships.

An objective of Inroads, which to date has supported more than 700 young people, is for companies to open their vision and not only contemplate young people who have gone through private universities, says Javier Delgado, general director of Inroads Mexico. Inroads is financed by associated companies – 35 so far, including Ericsson, Colgate, Kellog’s, Santander, Scotiabank, Banamex and Banorte – and plans to take its programs to Guadalajara and Monterrey.

Adrián entered the Inroads program in 2001. During the last two years of his degree, he entered Deutsche Bank (DB) as an intern, while taking Saturday courses to learn to function in corporate environments and did social work in a nursing home in elderly. At the end of the two years, he entered a two-and-a-half-month graduate program in London, and on his return, he was hired by the DB as an analyst for their offices in New York, where he had several promotions all the way to vice president in the business of Forex brokerage and three years ago switched to TD Securities.

Dead end maze?

But Inroads swim in an ocean. Before opening a gap for social mobility, basic needs must be covered and the most dramatic lag is access to food, which affects 27.4 million Mexicans, according to CONEVAL data cited in the government report. In response, the authorities launched the Crusade Against Hunger this year, with the hope of reaching 7.4 million Mexicans. But there are also 25.3 million people without access to health services.

The CEEY says that in order to aspire to social mobility it is a condition that there be economic growth; however, this year, the Mexican economy will grow less than 1.8%, while the population increases at a rate of 1.3%.

For its part, the UNAM Faculty of Economics points out that, without growth, it is not possible to create enough jobs, which will keep salaries and even academic degrees depreciated. As the number of people looking for a job is greater, wages lose value; from 1987 to last year, the salary lost 76.3% of its purchasing power.

The deficit of jobs jobit also devalues ​​the importance of professional qualifications, because in the face of the abundance of job applications, contractors raise the requirements with justified or artificial reasons, says José Antonio Pérez, researcher on youth issues at UNAM; in addition to encouraging independent work, which lacks social benefits. “[Currently] you have to have better academic qualifications to, at the very least, maintain the economic condition that your parents had,” he adds.

Provide conditions for social mobility in Mexico, demand for public policies both of general application and others directed to specific sectors; such as teenage mothers. In the country, 69 out of every 1000 pregnancies occur in adolescent women, according to official data. “Adolescent pregnancy in very poor homes is one of the great problems in Latin America, because that is where society is reproducing itself,” says Alicia Bárcena, from ECLAC.

In this environment, and as far as he can, José fights against the indifference that some companies exercise towards recent graduates from public schools. Whenever he can, he tries to hire graduates of the UNAM or the IPN, but from experience he knows that where he works best is when he seeks professionals for strenuous jobs.

To occupy management positions in a large company, he has no choice: to go to graduates of private universities. Candidates need to have a lot of self-confidence and even a certain arrogance, he points out, because they need to be immune to the daily stresses they will have to face.

In this way, the history of social immobility is reproduced.

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