About 250 million vehicles are in use in the United States. Around the world, there were about 820 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2008.
The automobile is a primary mode of transportation for many developed economies. The Detroit branch of Boston Consulting Group predicts that, by 2014, one-third of world demand will be in the four BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China). Other potentially powerful automotive markets are Iran and Indonesia. Emerging auto markets already buy more cars than established markets. According to a J.D. Power study, emerging markets accounted for 51 percent of the global light-vehicle sales in 2010. The study expects this trend to accelerate.
China is the leading manufacturer of automobiles by about a factor of 2 over the next largest which is Japan and the United States is third. There are 20 countries which have automotive industries.
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