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Home > Japanese Society and Culture > No. 5 (2023)

 

Japanese Society and Culture

Keywords

Automobile industry, Canada, Detroit Three, Japanese automakers, USMCA

Received Date

9-30-2022

Revised Date

11-11-2022

Accepted Date

11-14-2022

Publication Date

3-31-2023

Abstract

Abstract

This paper attempts to clarify characteristics of the Canadian automobile industry after the Lehman Shock of 2008. The examination, based on motor vehicle production units from 2007 to 2021, reveals the following three points. First, from the global perspective, the center of automobile production shifted from developed countries to emerging economies such as China. Second, within the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), automobile production shifted toward Mexico. Finally, with the increase in automobile production by Toyota and Honda, their presence has grown in the Canadian automobile industry.

The United States government along with the Canadian federal and the Ontario provincial governments played a crucial role in providing the Detroit Three with huge amounts of financial aid to bail them out. In Canada, the role of the federal and provincial governments is significant through continuous financial support to enhance the international competitiveness of automakers.

In response to the dynamic changes in political economic environments and technological advancement, the automobile companies globally planned where to locate their assembly plants and redirected their valuable resources towards promising automobile production, such as electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and SUVs. The prosperity of the Canadian automobile industry in the future depends on whether it adapts to the new trend of zero-emission transportation and whether it utilizes Canada’s locational advantages.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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