The Second Automobile Revolution

Since the 1990s, there has been an almost unprecedented proliferation and succession of forecasts and recommendations that automobile firms are supposed to take into account if they wish to survive and maintain their independence over the short term. At the same time, many developments have been underestimated and even ignored such as the financial crisis of 2008.

We are at the beginning of a second automobile revolution stemming from the combination of two rapid developments: new automobile markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China) with growth rates and size projections far exceeding past events witnessed in the USA, Europe and Japan; and the ongoing and probably irreversible move towards alternative energies and driving modes.

The implications of these two changes, which despite appearances are interdependent, will turn the automobile upside down, at an industrial level but also in terms of utilisation. The question is: which old or new automakers will benefit from upcoming upheavals and what will this cost automobile employees and producer countries.

This book suggests a renewed analysis conducted in light of the transformations occurring in national growth models and corporate strategies, so as to discern the effects on different 'company governance compromises' and productive models. GERPISA (Groupe d'Aetude et de Recherche Permanent sur l'Industrie et les Salaries de l'Automobile, Aecole des Hautes Aetudes en Sciences Sociales-Paris) is a French-based international network, formed in 1992.

Now with 350 members from 27 countries, it links economists, management researchers, historians and sociologists working on the automobile industry. This book is one of the products of its fifth international research programme 'Sustainable Development and Automobile Industry', run between 2007 and 2010.