Imagine how the world would be transformed if the number
of people who owned cars doubled in a decade. In fact,
as the rate of personal vehicle ownership soars in Asia,
a new kind of global automotive manufacturing industry
is emerging to capitalize on this new customer base.
Automakers (and the financial markets and supply chains
that support them) already know their world is going to
change; the media are beginning to pay attention to
fledgling motor vehicle companies such as Chery (in
China) and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M, in India). But
few people realize the full implications. If the auto
markets of developing nations evolve on a par with
established markets by, say, 2020, that development
could upend today’s prevailing notions of what a car
costs, how it is produced, and how it is used. 2007
