abstract
| - The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and rapidly evolved into the largest in the world as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass-production. The United States was overtaken as the largest automobile producer by Japan in the 1980s and subsequently by China in 2008. The U.S. currently is second among largest manufacturer in the world by volume with 8-10 million automobiles annual manufacturing (except down to 5.7 million in 2009 due to crisis), although peaks of production levels of up to near 15 and 13 million units were achieved in the 1970s and 2000s. The motor vehicle industry began with hundreds of manufacturers, but by the end of the 1920s it was dominated by three large companies: General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. After the Great Depression and World War II, these companies continued to prosper and the U.S. produced near three quarters of all automobiles in the world near 1950 (8,005,859 of 10,577,426). Beginning in the 1970s, a combination of high oil prices and increased competition from foreign auto manufacturers severely affected the companies. In the ensuing years, the companies periodically bounced back, but by 2008 the industry was in turmoil at crisis. As a result, General Motors and Chrysler filed bankruptcy reorganization and were bailed out with loans and investments from the federal government. Prior to the 1980s, most of the plants were owned by domestic manufacturers of the Big Three (GM, Ford, Chrysler) and AMC. This figure has dropped steadily since the creation of auto transplants, factories established in the U.S. by foreign-owned car companies.
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