Market Consolidation

​      Is market consolidation the inevitable future of the automotive industry? Join us as we explore the fascinating parallels between the consolidation trends of the past and today's market dynamics. As markets reach saturation, we question whether the burgeoning electric vehicle sector will follow a similar path.

 

Everett J.

#autolooks

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, it's happened again.
Another company has been consumed by its
bigger sibling, and this time Brightrop is
being brought in to the Chevrolet bowtie.
Yes, brightrop is no more and with it, our
brand new launch of Chevrolet vans for the
first time in nearly 30 years.
Hell, the Savannah van goes all the way
back to the late 90s and now they have

(00:22):
Brightrop.
But Brightrop was here first.
But why did this happen?
Well, general motors thought it'd be easier
to consolidate the two as one and focus
primarily on one brand.
That's something that china is going to
have to learn about real quickly as their
market starts to plateau now.
Consolidation will eventually happen and
because car companies need to survive, some

(00:43):
of them are just going to get into bed with
others.
So today, autolux is taking a look at the
world of market consolidation.
Welcome back to the autolux podcast.
I am your host, as always, the doctor to
the automotive industry, mr everett j,

(01:04):
coming to you from our host website at
autoluxnet.
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(01:24):
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(01:45):
us an email over at email at autoluxnet.
So, like I said in the beginning, market
consolidation it happened before multiple
times.
We saw this back in the 1930s and 40s as
small car companies started disappearing
and started merging with other ones.

(02:07):
You have to remember Packard and Studebaker
eventually started out their lives as
individual car companies and eventually
wound up doing the same thing as General
Motors and merging together.
Later on they would get into bed with
Hudson, willys and even Nash and eventually
the follow-up from all of them would be
consolidated into one major car company
known as American Motors.
Now American Motors has eventually used the
Jeep name to create another product line
dedicated to SUVs with the Jeep branding.

(02:28):
But you have to remember car companies like
General Motors had a multitude of different
car companies.
At one point Got to remember there's
Chevrolet, viking, oakland, oldsmobile,
buick, lasalle, cadillac and Pontiac, and
eventually all of those became Chevrolet,
oldsmobile, buick, cadillac, gmc and
Pontiac, and eventually all of those became
Chevrolet, oldsmobile, buick, cadillac, gmc
and Pontiac.
So they consolidated into six standardized

(02:50):
brands, giving way for Viking, oakland and
LaSalle, basically kicking the bucket three
of them.
Why?
Because they were merged in with other
brands.
They consolidated them.
They didn't need so many different marks
Now that price points can go even further.
They needed only one market capitalization
for a car company.
They didn't need a multitude of different

(03:10):
ones cannibalizing each other's sales, and
that's something that's actually happened
in China.
Just take a look at some of the major
players in China.
Geely is the perfect example of it, with a
multitude of different divisions.
They're basically General Motors back in
the 1920s.
You've got Geely, you got Galaxy, you got
London Electric Vehicles, you got Volvo,
polestar, lotus, lincoln Company, zeeker,

(03:32):
farzan, maple, terrafuga, smart.
Now they have Radar, they have QJ for their
motorcycles and even ZDU.
Oh, and now they own Proton Auto as well.
They own all of these divisions.
Why do they need so many different
divisions?
Geely can handle things on the standardized
product range, volvo can handle the luxury
and Zekert can handle the mid-range.

(03:54):
So what's the point of having Proton and
Geometry and Galaxy and Radar, like Radar
is here to pick up the truck market.
Well, geely just needs to move into the
truck market itself.
Why do you need a new, separate brand?
Well, it's something that we learned in
North America a long time ago, and
consolidation eventually needs to happen,
because when the market hits its peak,

(04:14):
it'll eventually plateau out at a maximum
amount of sales.
You have to remember the state's basically
topped out at over 8 million sales per year
and since then we really haven't grown that
much.
We could have ups and downs throughout the
wave, but never really a massive increase.
Population increases, but then, you have to
remember, tons of population now want to

(04:34):
live in the cities and not own a vehicle.
So then you're losing that market share.
Well, china, about a decade ago, decided to
hold off on allowing more people to get
cars.
You basically had to sign up for a lottery
to own a vehicle if you lived in a city.
Now, if you live way out in the middle of
nowhere.
You can get a vehicle like nothing.
So those people, as their incomes increased,
they were able to buy vehicles for the

(04:56):
first time ever.
See, that was the thing During the 20s when
Ford Motor Company really blew up on the
world.
There was no market before that.
Before that it was a horse and buggy.
So companies that built horse and buggies
and cutters were huge.
They were everywhere.
But eventually their market would tap out
as the automotive industry would come into
play.
And with the automobile coming into play,

(05:17):
everybody wanted to get in.
So when you have a burgundy marketplace,
everyone wants a piece of it.
And we seeing it again, even in north
america with the electric vehicle.
And as of right now the peak is being hit.
We all think all the electric vehicle
marketplace could boom so much more and
grow so much.
We have to remember the existing automakers
are going to eventually enter those markets

(05:38):
as well.
So all these small, tiny little companies
that were getting into it at the beginning
might not last.
We've already seen that.
We've seen the follow-up from canoe fisker.
Well, today we just learned that bollinger
might be on its way out, or lion electric
from quebec has just gone into bankruptcy,
like there are tons of these small little
niche players that just can't make it.

(06:00):
Now the chinese marketplace has been
booming for over 20 years, but you remember,
remember they have over a billion people
and they had a very small market share
before.
At the turn of the century, you were
looking at over about 200 million people.
Now it still seems a massive market,
considering the fact that my home country,
canada, is essentially 40 million people
and when you're looking at the automotive

(06:21):
marketplace, you're looking at maybe closer
to 30 million people possibly to purchase
vehicles in my home country.
Now, in China, out of that 200 million
people, you're still looking at over 150
million people that can afford to purchase
vehicles.
That was a pretty big market, but you have
to remember there's 800 million other
people that could get into that marketplace.
So no wonder when they went from a pure

(06:42):
communist to a communist capitalist
marketplace, the market took off and all
these little car companies started coming
out of everywhere and even the pre-existing
ones started adding more and more and more.
You have to remember Geely Originally
started out as Geely.
They used to have a brand called Glegal,
but they merged that into Geely.
Then there was Amgrand, then there was
Galaxy, then there was Geometry, then there

(07:02):
was Geome All of these grand.
Then there was galaxy, there was geometry,
then there's geom.
All these car companies had a place in the
market, kind of like how ford created
mercury to sit between ford products and
lincoln products on top.
You needed those changes.
You needed to fit into those marketplaces.
As of right now, in the north american
marketplace, you essentially have three
product ranges for vehicles you have your
standardized product, you have your

(07:24):
standardized product, you have your premium
product and you have your luxury product.
There is no more economy makes in the North
American climate and there's no more
high-end makes.
These areas are up for grabs but they feel
there's no market share.
We've consolidated in so much and destroyed
so many of these companies when the market
hit its peak, essentially back in 2008,

(07:45):
that now it's controlled by just a few big
companies who refuse to open up.
See, consolidation happened in the 30s when
the markets collapsed.
All these little car companies that
couldn't make it would either go out or
become part of someone else, and all these
divisions that once existed would
eventually merge with each other kind of
like we just saw with Bright Drop and

(08:07):
Chevrolet Sure.
There was a massive amount of population
growth still happening, but due to the 30s,
people were having less kids.
People were able to afford less, so a new
vehicle wasn't in play.
So we lost a lot of automobiles.
But as the end of the war came upon us the
late 40s and early 50s we started seeing

(08:27):
more products coming out.
Some of these niche players that had
consolidated together were being
rejuvenated.
Their markets were growing and the 50s were
a time of prosperity and new companies
coming out.
But eventually, as all those families had
purchased their vehicles and moved to the
suburbs, they hit that plateau in the 60s,
and until the baby boomers started getting

(08:48):
into purchasing vehicles in the late 60s
and early 70s, there was no need for
anything.
All these different little marks started
disappearing.
Now see if they could hold out for a few
more years.
They'd be able to hit the next wave that
came through.
They wouldn't have to consolidate with each
other because the muscle car era was upon
us.
American Motors made money during this time

(09:09):
frame and even after it, during the gas
crisis, with the AMC Pacer and Gremlin,
which weren't the world's greatest vehicles,
but hell.
They saved American Motors at that point in
time.
Unfortunately, they both rode on their own
dedicated platforms, which, if you've
listened to our podcast about American
Motors, you understand that essentially,
the two of them should have built off the
same platform to save American Motors money

(09:32):
Platform building.
Come on, guys, we got this.
See, general Motors consolidated all kinds
of stuff together, but they also used
platform building to hit all those
different markets.
But when the financial crisis of 2008
really set in and the marketplace in North
America hit its peak, they realized very
quickly that they had too many car
companies.
Hummer was killed off, saab was killed off,

(09:54):
saturn was killed off, pontiac was killed
off.
Oldsmobile was let go a few years before
that because there was no need by the late
90s and early 2000s for two premium brands.
For General Motors.
The market wasn't big enough to sustain two
of them, so Buick and it basically handled
it all.
So Oldsmobile's products were essentially
absorbed into both Saab and Buick.

(10:16):
There were consolidated information and
with consolidation sometimes nameplates
come along.
Now don't expect to see something like an
Oldsmobile Aurora or the Cutlass 442 come
back, because those cars are dead with the
name.
We have the Challenger, because Chrysler
wanted to give us the Dodge Challenger and
Pony Car, but everybody wants the Cuda.
The Cuda was the king, the Challenger was

(10:37):
its counterpart.
But since they consolidated Plymouth into
the Dodge lineup, the Cuda can't come back
because the Cuda is a Plymouth product even
in today's world.
But you can buy aftermarket kits to turn
your Challenger into a Cuda.
So market consolidation sometimes has its
downfall.
Like we said, when the market is growing,
all these companies want to capitalize on

(10:59):
that.
And, like we said, the muscle car era
brought out the first little bit of wave
since the fall of the 1930s.
But the real second major wave of opening
up the floodgates in the marketplace came
in the late 80s and early 90s, when not the
baby boomers but Generation X was just
starting to get out into the public.
But they couldn't afford big, expensive

(11:19):
cars.
It was a different world and they needed
something cheap to get around.
So in the North American climate we created
all kinds of little entry-level products.
General Motors wanted to fight off the
Asian invasion, so they created Saturn to
go up with them Quality products at a
decent price.
Then they entered the bottom field.
They had Gio, asuna, hell.
They took over Suzuki and basically used

(11:40):
Suzuki and Isuzu to bring their small cars
to the North American marketplace to get
the entry-level products, the economy field,
you know that one that doesn't exist with
Jeff Bezos and his slate company.
He's trying to create right now that
entry-level economy products.
Economy doesn't always mean crap, but it
does mean entry-level pricing, and that's

(12:01):
what happened in the late 80s and early 90s.
We got a lot of these entry-level pricing
and that's what happened in the late 80s
and early 90s.
We got a lot of these entry-level products
in and Plymouth took two steps back, where
Plymouth became more of their entry-level
brand.
Then you went to a Dodge and then the Eagle
brand got pushed in.
Now the Eagle brand eventually got pushed
in only because of the fall of American
Motors.
And if you want to learn more about Eagle,
listen to our podcast about Eagle Motors

(12:22):
and you'll understand where they came from,
why they were here and why they had to go
All from the Outlooksnet podcast.
And then, after Eagle, we got into Chrysler,
so they had more brands.
But by the end of the 90s we were
consolidating.
Yet again, there was no difference between
an Eagle or a Dodge, so it was killed off
Eventually.
There was no difference between a Dodge and
a Plymouth, so it was killed off.

(12:48):
You need to consolidate when you hit the
peak and you have to focus on your core
automobiles.
This happened a lot in European
marketplaces and it also happened in the
American marketplace.
You see it more in the American marketplace,
where the market needs to consolidate with
each other the European marketplace.
You were more likely to see car companies
completely disappear DKW, wolseley, austin,
hell.
Even British Leyland Rover MG is back, but
it disappeared.
All those companies just went out and as

(13:09):
their market hit its peak and the demand
for entry-level products was far exceeding
what their own country could sustain, they
eventually lost them.
And remember, british Leyland was
essentially the amalgamation of a multitude
of different British automakers to compete
against the Japanese vehicles that were
entering their marketplace.
Unfortunately, in the end they failed.

(13:31):
They consolidated but they didn't innovate
enough and market consolidation sometimes
can bring the end of a car company.
American Motors was another major
consolidation of.
All kinds of American players Came out the
1920s boom.
All those manufacturers eventually became
one.
They consolidated into one to survive and
that's what is eventually going to happen

(13:52):
within the next decade to the Chinese
marketplace.
We're seeing the beginning of it right now
in 2025.
The market is slowly starting to peak and
with that we're starting to see automakers
lose ground.
Gotta remember Leap Motors just formed an
alliance with Stellantis to keep itself
alive.
But you have to remember Stellantis is a
giant company with tons of automotive

(14:13):
divisions and it needs to consolidate
itself together as well.
Why do we both need Chrysler and Lancia?
Why can't we have one?
Why do we have Dodge, opel, Vauxhall,
citroën, fiat, hell?
They all ride in the same grounds.
Bump Fiat down to the economy brand and
keep one or two of the brands.
It's hard to maintain a mass amount of

(14:34):
automotive companies when the market is
expanding like it is right now and it has
been for the past 20 years in China.
Who cares?
You're selling cars constantly.
You're making money off of anything you can
push out.
You're trying to find any subdivision,
division, any marketplace you can get your
vehicles into.
If there's a price point that hasn't been
hit yet, hell, let's throw a new company at

(14:56):
it.
Why did Geely think that they needed to
create Zeker?
Zeker looks exactly like Lincoln Company,
but Lincoln Company was built for people
who want a car sharing service.
It's essentially what it was built for.
So Zeker became the premium variations of
Lincoln Company for personal ownership.
Lotus is there because of its name.

(15:16):
Proton is there because they want to
maintain the Malaysian marketplace with a
dedicated, known brand Hell.
They split Volvo and Polestar out.
But you have to remember, eventually
Polestar is either going to have to become
Volvo or Volvo is going to have to become
Polestar.
Volkswagen is slowly starting to make that
decision between Seat and Supra.
Is Supra going to become back part of Seat

(15:37):
Motors or has that name become so strong
and Seat become a distant memory that they
can literally shut the doors on Seat and
consolidate all of its operations into the
Supra brand, similar to how Geely has
basically moved Glegel into its own home
garage and how M-Grand and Galaxy are now
one.
Essentially, m-grand and Geometry

(15:58):
consolidated together and now become the
Galaxy brand from Geely.
So eventually Volvo and Polestar will have
to do that.
Lincoln Company and Zeker will have to do
that.
Emota and Jaikyuu they're the same company.
They're eventually going to have to
consolidate because people will just find
it too confusing.
We get it, it's from Cherry Automotive,
you're a premium brand, but let's just make

(16:18):
one name.
It becomes confusing and, like we said,
when the market hits a peak you can't
maintain all of these car companies.
If you want total proof of that, go and ask
General Motors how easy it is to run a
multitude of different car companies.
Why do you think they consolidated
themselves down to just four?
Hell, when they brought back Hummer.
Hummer isn't even a dedicated brand.

(16:43):
It's a Hummer sub-brand of GMC, kind of
like the Denali nameplate.
Hell, horch and Maybach have made their
resurgence into the world.
The same way you can now get an Audi Horch,
you don't get the Horch badge yet, even
though Horch was one of the original
automotive companies that merged together
to form Auto Union or, as we best know it
now, audi.
Audi is a perfect example of automotive
consolidation.

(17:03):
Germany had way too many car companies and
their market was not growing, so four car
companies came together and joined
themselves so they could better compete in
the marketplace.
They originally were called Auto Union and
each car company had its name imprinted in
the original logo, but eventually that
changed.
Their names disappeared and it was still
Auto Union, and then eventually they

(17:24):
shortened it and it became Audi.
They consolidated four companies into one,
so now they only had to focus on one brand.
See, right now we're starting to see a
couple of the bigger car companies in China
see that they need different parts of the
market.
Nio has now created Innova and Xpeng has
created Firefly.
They both needed entry-level vehicles where

(17:45):
they sit, both in a premium price point.
So they need these new divisions to keep
themselves into longevity.
They don't want to wind up like little
companies like New, because that was one
that barely even got off the ground.
Hell, right now Netta is thinking of
joining ranks with Toyota.
Hell, nissan, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi
alliance has all come unraveled.
Renault is now focusing on itself, alpine

(18:08):
and Dacia, where Nissan and Mitsubishi are
still kicking around each other.
But they may not be able to survive.
And Mitsubishi knows this and, being not
directly owned by Nissan, they're getting
into bed with other car companies.
They're getting into bed with Foxconn, or
better known as Foxtron Automotive, to help
build new electric vehicles.
Now, with the increase in the electric

(18:28):
vehicle marketplace, we've seen tons and
tons of companies get into this.
It's not just brand new divisions and brand
new markets that are opening up.
Companies that are pre-existed are getting
into it.
Xiaomi, huawei and Alibaba have all
partnered or created their own dedicated
car companies.

(18:52):
They know the technology that they need for
the automobile industry, so they're
consolidating their knowledge with other
car companies to create new brands to try
and crack the market.
Hell, huawei has already got three car
companies under its belt yeah, three.
Hell, alibaba has teamed up with Sears, and
Sears is a division itself.
But when the market eventually collapses,
you're going to start to see these car
companies either pull out or die out.

(19:13):
Think about it Xiaomi is already getting
flack for its vehicle and with an SUV on
the way, will it be able to hold off and
maintain its place in the market as the
Chinese market is starting to plateau?
Huawei's already have tons of money behind
them, but they're trying to enter
marketplaces where they can know they can
make more money.
Their avatar brand may disappear and

(19:33):
Alibaba's IAM brand may disappear, but
their host companies will be able to stick
it out.
But companies like Niu Xpeng, nio Junyao or
even Li Auto can they make?
Make it?
They only just started out, but you have to
remember tesla paved the way for electric
vehicles globally, where bid was already
getting into that and already had knowledge

(19:53):
of it made it so much easier for them to
expand across the world.
Bid has been smart in their play, though,
where most of their entries are only in the
sub-brand categories, so there's no
consolidation in the end.
Bid essentially just needs to kill off
sub-brand categories, so there's no
consolidation in the end.
Bid essentially just needs to kill off
sub-brands from the sales, which is a
smarter play, because who really cares if
the Denali edition from GMC disappears?

(20:13):
They're going to lose their luxury name.
But if they change it and turn the Hummer
nameplate into their new luxury end, well,
it's just been replaced.
We'll miss the Denali, but it has a
replacement.
If a company like neo just goes belly up,
then we'll remember.
And in the past few years we've seen tons
of these new divisions open up dong fang's
getting into it, gac's getting into it,

(20:34):
bids getting into it, cherry shanghan,
motive group faw they're all getting into a
multitude of different brands.
Hal chiang has been on a freaking blitz
lately with new brands with Kui Yong and
Deepol.
Come on, it's two new brands competing with
your standardized products, but they're
going after two different select categories

(20:55):
of the market.
But like we said, the market is about to
hit its peak and in the past little while
we've seen companies like Borden, byte, new
Dorsen and even Cruise in north america
bite the dust.
Cruise was at the top of its game.
It had everything going for it and then all
of a sudden, gm has one major issue with
their product.

(21:15):
They pull the plug on it.
Essentially, they just moved everything
in-house to GM technology.
Byte was a car company that was going to
pave the way for brand new digital screens
and vehicles, but they never got off the
ground.
Hybrid Kinetics barely even made it.
Some of these car companies came out and
disappeared.
I got through my list of all these car
companies on my website and I'm surprised.

(21:36):
I just added these car companies on my
website and I'm surprised, like I just
added these car companies like a year or
two ago, and they're already dead.
It's just like in North America.
I'm losing my shirt essentially with the
bankruptcy of a few car companies.
Yeah, I'm one of those crazy people that
invested in Lordstown and Lion Electric
Faraday Future, figuring that these car
companies had something going for them.
This market was expanding, but I didn't get

(21:57):
out in time and I bought too early, which
means I bought at a peak time, which means
my stock was never going to go up.
Eventually, the consolidation needed to
happen.
Faraday Future is now partnering up with
Foxconn Lordstown Automotive.
Its manufacturing plant, just before it
went bankrupt, was bought by Foxconn
Automotive.

(22:18):
Foxconn has deep pockets with Foxtron and
they want to invest and get into the
automotive marketplace.
They're another one from the Asian
marketplace that really wants to go out on
a global scale.
Like I said, they're teaming up with
Mitsubishi, of all companies, to try and
get themselves a name With a multitude of
different products.
They're trying to accomplish that.
Another company would be VinFast,
originally teaming up with BMW to build
their first vehicle.

(22:38):
Now they're all out on their own but
they're going it all alone.
They're trying to enter these marketplaces
and pick up all these loose pieces that
have died out before.
Like I said, bollinger is going into
bankruptcy but Bollinger just became a
division of Mullen Automotive, kind of like
Electric Mechanica from BC, british
Columbia, if you didn't know that, from

(23:01):
Canada they're merging together.
So these electric car companies are
starting to consolidate with each other.
They're trying to maintain themselves in
the marketplace.
Hell, it makes you think maybe Fisker
should have joined with somebody before
going belly up.
But in the Chinese marketplace markets
consolidation really needs to happen and
Galaxy Glegal essentially been consolidated.
Polestar and Volvo, lincoln Company and
Zeker Chevrolet and Brightrop.
Netta wants to move in grounds with Toyota.

(23:21):
Leap Motor is eventually going to be
absorbed by Stellantis.
My biggest question of the consolidation
and the increase in the EV marketplace is
why Toyota didn't think to bring the Scion
brand back, to brand its electric cars as
only Scion products.
Think about that one.
The market consolidation is coming.
China may not be ready for it, but
essentially all they have left is reliance

(23:42):
on the growing Indian marketplace or trying
to push themselves deeper into the
Brazilian or Russian marketplaces, which
are growing.
Without entry into these marketplaces,
consolidation is going to have to happen at
home, and over the next decade the Chinese
EV companies will either pass or have to
consolidate with each other to stay alive.
Bid, geely, dongfang, faw, shanghai

(24:04):
Automotive Group, beijing Automotive, great
Wall Motors and Cherry are essentially the
dominant brands.
Then we also have the smaller makes, which
are trying to keep a foothold in the
marketplace, with NIO, xpeng, xiaomi, sears,
liauto and Huawei.
They're trying to maintain themselves in a
marketplace that needs to consolidate.

(24:24):
There are too many brands.
We get it.
Japan has managed to keep Honda, toyota,
nissan, suzuki, isuzu all alive.
Sure, daihatsu is there, but Daihatsu is
part of Toyota Motor Corporation.
Now Hyundai has consolidated itself with
Kia, and in the Korean marketplace there's
only one reigning champion of the
automotive world, because their marketplace
reached its peak, so it can only afford to

(24:46):
have one major car company North America.
In the United States there's only two left
General Motors and Ford.
American Motors bit the dust got taken over
by Chrysler Corporation and Chrysler's now
part of Stellantis.
So who do you think is going to be joining
each other?
Bid's one of the bigger players.
Geely's got tons of division.
Dongfang's holding on Same with.
Faw's got its transport division.

(25:08):
Now with Chang it's a little different.
They were the small guy 20 years ago and
they've never really come out of their
shell.
Now they're trying to push as many
divisions out as possible to keep
themselves going, but unfortunately,
consolidation is about to happen.
Beijing Automotive, great Wall Motors, baw,
gwm, jmc.
Eventually, those three conglomerates are

(25:28):
going to have to join forces together to
keep themselves alive.
Now Cherry's got a multitude of different
divisions as well, and they're going to
have to pull up their shoes to keep
themselves going.
Siri's got a multitude of different
divisions as well, and they're going to
have to pull up their shoes to keep
themselves going.
Now Neo and XPeng are small enough to keep
themselves in a right foothold in the
marketplace right now, but unfortunately,
being the smaller guy, when the market does
essentially retract, even just slightly for

(25:53):
a year or two, they can literally be put
out to pasture.
Remember how quickly Studebaker collapsed
at the end of the 50s.
Now the Avanti, which came in in the 60s,
was their last major product, surviving all
the way up until the early 2000s.
But Studebaker had the largest automotive
plant in the United States at one point in
time.
The building's still there Well, not all of
it, but you can still see it.
They were too big to fail.

(26:14):
When the market collapsed they weren't
ready for it.
They consolidated, but even their
consolidation efforts were not enough.
Expansion into other markets can help keep
all your divisions alive.
Hell, buick is only alive today because
they sold a lot of cars in China.
If they weren't selling a lot of cars in
China, buick would have been kicked to the
curb and Pontiac would have survived,

(26:34):
because Pontiac sales in North America were
higher than Buick at that point in time.
Only the sales in China of Buick kept them
alive.
But GM needed to consolidate, so they did
it.
Expanding into new markets is one of the
few ways, but that can be a problem as well,
as we're seeing right now.
Tariffs, the cost of new plants for
expansion, entering new marketplaces, the

(26:55):
environment and social impacts of new
marketplaces can rain in on your finances
and literally cause you to crash and burn
easily.
Starbucks learned this very quickly when
they went to Japan, not realizing that in
Japan what you sell customers has to look
exactly like the sign on the wall, because
they have anti-advertising, which means

(27:16):
their advertisements can only show what
you're about to get.
They didn't learn the marketplace
Consolidation happens no matter what.
Sometimes we bring companies in to try and
gain new technology footholds.
Toyota bought out Subaru from GM because
they wanted their all-wheel drive systems
and Subaru wanted the hybrid systems for
theirs.
Leap Motor and Stellantis.

(27:37):
Stellantis wants new electric vehicle
technology.
Leap Motor knows it better than Stellantis.
General Motors wanted new economy cars for
the growing entry-level economy marketplace
of the 80s and 90s.
So they picked up Suzuki.
Renault and Nissan got into bed with each
other because they thought they could share
costs for their product ranges.
The marriage worked, but in the end they
didn't fully consolidate each other.

(27:58):
So really in the end they failed each other.
Sometimes you consolidate with other
companies to bring in something new.
How about Alpine Renown in a new sports car?
They already own the name.
Let's create one.
It's essentially part of the rejuvenation
Mercedes bringing AMG on board to become
their dedicated in-house performance
products.
So essentially on board to become their
dedicated in-house performance products.

(28:18):
So essentially, amg was bought out and
consolidated into the Mercedes nameplate,
but they're keeping themselves alive.
Without consolidation, a lot of these car
companies wouldn't exist today.
And if the Chinese marketplace wants to
survive in a world of tomorrow, over the
next decade, all of these big players are
going to have to start consolidating with
each other.
You can't just keep focusing on spanning
across world marketplaces.
Nio wants to take on the world and they

(28:40):
think the Lenovo brand is going to help
them enter into a brand new foothold
marketplace.
But if NIO can't make it in Europe, it
can't fall back on China, because the
market has hit a peak.
Global expansion is all they have to look
forward to.
What do you think Tesla did when they
opened their plant in Germany and they

(29:01):
opened the plant in China?
They did that to take over the marketplace,
but now, with so many competitors and the
market starting to retract to both areas,
they're failing.
Will Tesla have to consolidate with
somebody?
Well, they've taken way too long to create
a full product lineup Like come on two
sedans, two ALVs and a pickup truck and
it's been 20 years.
20 years, that's all you've done.
It's a far cry from a lot of these Chinese
companies that have come out.

(29:21):
Nio has more products than Tesla and
they're half their age.
Will Tesla and NIO have to consolidate with
each other?
You never know.
In the future, more companies are going to
jump into bed with each other and they're
all going to do this to keep themselves
alive, even though the global market for
automobiles is bigger than it was a hundred
years ago, because there's a bigger
population out there.
There are more companies today than there

(29:42):
were 50 years ago and even a hundred years
ago, with too many car companies vying for
the same piece of cake.
Eventually somebody's going to get kicked
off the table and within the next decade
we're going to learn who's going to get
kicked off the table in china.
Because the tariffs looming from the united
states and production caps and the
inability to enter the north american
marketplace, or even hard times trying to

(30:03):
enter the european marketplace, the chinese
car company is going to have a major issue
upon their hands.
Consolidation is going to be the only thing
that could save them, to keep them going
for the next few decades, because how many
american motors do you want from China?
As of right now, there are nine major
automotive players in China.
Within the next decade, it'll probably be
whittled down to at least eight.

(30:25):
50 years from now we'll probably be at five
or six.
Eventually it's going to consolidate upon
itself, whether it be outside partners or
inside partners.
The marketplace will eventually become part
of each other.
Look at Stellantis.
It's a global car company.
It doesn't just focus on one select area.
It's consolidated so much.
It's French, it's Italian, it's Chinese,

(30:47):
it's American, a Volkswagen automotive
group.
It's Germany, czech Republic, american,
italian and French.
We're becoming more of a global marketplace.
That's why consolidation happens in so many
different markets.
We need to consolidate and merge each other
into, to create global presence.
A time where we can have a million
different companies producing a million

(31:08):
different things is slowly dwindling.
I get it.
We don't like monopolies in the world, but
unfortunately in the automotive world
eventually you're only going to have a few.
Choices are few and far between.
General Motors may have four divisions,
still kind of like Toyota, but eventually
some of them will fail and with that
they'll either be consolidated together or
consolidated out.

(31:28):
So if you like this podcast, please like,
share or comment about it on any of the
major social feeds or streaming sites that
you've found the Autolux podcast on, and
tell us about your consolidation.
What car companies do you remember that
basically joined together to become one.
We all remember how Scion got broken out of
Toyota to become a new, youthful,
entry-level brand, similar to what Saturn

(31:49):
was for General Motors in the 1980s and 90s,
and then eventually it just wound up
winding itself back in because the IM
became a corolla.
They consolidated what they built.
What car companies do you believe are going
to be consolidated within each other?
Which ones do you believe are going to make
it through the next decade on a global
scale, especially from the Chinese
marketplace, since it's starting to peak,

(32:09):
and how many new car companies can we
expect from a growing marketplace in India?
This is a podcast that you know 30, 40
years from now we might be talking about
this yet again, about the Indian
marketplace.
And after you've done that, after you sent
this out and you contacted and you tagged
and told everybody about this podcast, stop
by the website, read some of the reviews,
check out some of the rates.

(32:30):
Go to the Corporate Links website page, big
or small.
We have them all, car companies from around
the globe, all available on the Autoluxnet
website and if you'd like to get in touch
with us, send us an email over at email at
Autoluxnet.
The Autolux podcast is brought to you by
Ecom Entertainment Group and distributed at
podbeamcom.
If you'd like to get in touch with us, send
us an email over at email at Autoluxnet.

(32:52):
So from myself, everett Jay, the
AutoltoLooksnet website and podcast, and
the Ecom Entertainment Group, strap
yourself in for this one fun wild ride that
the world of consolidation is going to take
us on.
Bye.