As US exports top 2 million, is America becoming the world's source of cheap cars?
Mon, Feb 9 2015
The upswing comes in part from from after-effects from the Great Recession, according to The Wall Street Journal. With a weak dollar and lower production costs after the financial crisis, building vehicles in the US was relatively cheaper and more competitive in the world.
At the same time buyers around the world are going crazy for crossovers. According to the WSJ, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are already exporting the majority of their US production of these models overseas. Both automakers have also announced investments to expand production further here to send more vehicles abroad. Even Honda has been shipping more models out of the country than it imported here.
There is a concern this international strength could start slowing because the dollar is strengthening against other currencies, though it's too early to know what the actual effect of this could be, according to the WSJ. "Of course, we closely watch currency exchange, but we don't make changes in production or allocation based on temporary fluctuations in the exchange rate," Ford North American boss Joe Hinrichs told the newspaper.
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- Mercedes-Benz
- exports
- us auto production
By Chris Bruce
See also: Weekly Recap: Ferrari, Ford and Porsche power up for Geneva, BMW previews new M6 GT3 racing prototype [UPDATE], BMW Hack: the auto industry's big cyber-security warning sign [w/video].