Latest in Makers and Brands

About Makers and Brands

Behind every car is a company, and behind every company is a set of decisions about money, factories, people and risk. The auto industry is one of the largest and most complicated businesses on earth, tying together steelmakers and chip foundries, dealers and lenders, unions and governments. When a carmaker stumbles, whole towns feel it; when it gets a product right, it can print money for a decade. This section follows the business side of the machine, where the real drama often lies.

The industry has been reshaped repeatedly. The Detroit Three dominated for much of the twentieth century before Japanese makers rewrote the rules on quality and efficiency, Korean brands climbed from budget to mainstream and then premium, and German luxury badges spread worldwide. Mergers built giants such as Stellantis and Volkswagen Group, while Tesla showed that a newcomer could become the world's most valuable automaker. Now Chinese brands led by BYD are challenging everyone, at home and increasingly abroad.

The subpages break the business into its moving parts: the automakers themselves, their earnings and strategy, the sales and market share race, the dealers who sell the cars, the recalls that fix them, the tariffs and trade rules that shape where they are built, the suppliers and chips they depend on, and the workers and unions who build them. Read together, they show why prices, lineups and factory plans change, and who wins and loses when they do.

Makers and Brands

The business behind the badges: automakers and their bosses, earnings, sales races, dealers, recalls, tariffs, suppliers and the people on the line.

  • 8 Subtopics
  • 84 Tracked terms
  • Last 30 days Feed window
Search within this topic Ask AI about this topic All topics

Inside Makers and Brands

Automakers The companies that build the world's cars, from Toyota, Volkswagen and GM to Tesla, Hyundai, Stellantis and BYD, and the decisions that move them.
Earnings and Strategy Quarterly results and the plans behind them: profits, margins, guidance, investment bets, plant decisions and the CEOs who have to explain them.
Sales and Market Share Who is selling and who is slipping: monthly and quarterly sales, deliveries, EV share and market share battles in the U.S., Europe, China and India.
Dealers The showrooms where cars meet buyers: inventory swings, markups and discounts, franchise law fights, direct sales, agency models and big dealer groups.
Recalls Safety defects and the fixes that follow: NHTSA recalls and investigations, airbag and fire risks, software patches and the brands with the biggest campaigns.
Tariffs and Trade How trade rules shape the cars people buy: auto tariffs, USMCA, Section 232, trade wars, Chinese EV duties, and the plants that move as a result.
Suppliers and Chips The parts makers behind every car, from Bosch, Denso and Magna to chipmakers, rare earth magnets and the supply-chain shocks that shut down factories.
Jobs and Labor The people who build cars: UAW and IG Metall contracts, strikes, layoffs and plant closures, hiring for EV and battery plants, and the fight over pay.

What this topic collects on

An article joins this feed when it matches these terms. Each one is also a search of its own.

  • +44 more