Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Toyota Motors, Nissan, Honda Motor, Ford and Daimler - Press Releases

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – December 30, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Auto Industry, including Toyota Motors (TM), Nissan (NSANY), Honda Motor (HMC), Ford (F) and Daimler (DAI).

A synopsis of today’s Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/28792/Auto+Industry+Outlook+%96+Dec.+09.

Auto Industry Outlook for 2010

The auto industry is a highly concentrated one. About 10 global automakers account for over 77% of the production worldwide. Among them, Toyota Motors (TM) leads with a 13.3% market share, while its domestic rivals including Nissan (NSANY) and its alliance with Renault account for 8.4% of the auto market, Honda Motor (HMC) 5.6% and Suzuki 3.8%. Among the Detroit automakers, General Motors (GM) holds 11.9% of the auto market, Ford (F) 7.8% and Chrysler-Fiat 6.4% of the auto industry.

The recent economic crisis has provided an impetus to a massive structural change in the auto industry, setting the stage for growth over the next decade. Given the high barriers to entry and need for scale economies (in operations, supply chain and marketing), the global auto industry landscape is expected to be ruled by global automakers and suppliers based in the six major auto markets of China, India, Japan, Korea, Western Europe and the U.S.

Higher fuel prices and concerns over global warming have pooled attention on the auto industry that either rely less on traditional fossil fuels or use renewable sources of less expensive energy. Thus, “green" alternatives such as fuel-efficient electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids will attract consumers in the wealthier countries while flex-fuels such as ethanol and natural gas will be highly sought-after in the emerging auto markets where the local climate or resource base favors their usage by automakers over petroleum.

Consequently, there will be a variety of powertrain technologies in the auto industry by the next decade. It is likely that “green" cars will represent up to a third of total global sales in developed auto markets and up to 20% in urban areas of emerging auto markets by 2020. Some of the “green" cars have already generated a huge response in the auto industry. These include the Ford Focus, GM Volt, Daimler (DAI) Smart, Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius.

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