The automotive industry is a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles, some of them are called automakers. It is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue. The automotive industry does not include industries dedicated to the maintenance of automobiles following delivery to the end-user, such as automobile repair shops and motor fuel filling stations.

HISTORY

The automotive industry began in the 1890s with hundreds of manufacturers that pioneered the horseless carriage. For many decades, the United States led the world in total automobile production. In 1929, before the Great Depression, the world had 32,028,500 automobiles in use, and the U.S. automobile industry produced over 90% of them. At that time the U.S. had one car per 4.87 persons. After World War II, the U.S. produced about 75 percent of world's auto production. In 1980, the U.S. was overtaken by Japan and then became world's leader again in 1994. In 2006, Japan narrowly passed the U.S. in production and held this rank until 2009, when China took the top spot with 13.8 million units. With 19.3 million units manufactured in 2012, China almost doubled the U.S. production, with 10.3 million units, while Japan was in third place with 9.9 million units. From 1970 (140 models) over 1998 (260 models) to 2012 (684 models), the number of automobile models in the U.S. has grown exponentially. 

Rank	Group	Country	Vehicles
1	Toyota	Japan	10,213,486
2	Volkswagen Group	Germany	10,126,281
3	Hyundai	South Korea	7,889,538
4	General Motors	United States	7,793,066
5	Ford	United States	6,429,485
6	Nissan	Japan	5,556,241
7	Honda	Japan	4,999,266
8	Fiat Chrysler Automobiles	Italy /  United States	4,681,457
9	Renault	France	3,373,278
10	PSA	France	3,152,787
11	Suzuki	Japan	2,945,295
12	SAIC	China	2,566,793
13	Daimler	Germany	2,526,450
14	BMW	Germany	2,359,756
15	Changan	China	1,715,871