Quote:
Originally Posted by Viffermike
You're forgetting one very, very important metric in many of those 'expanding' markets: potential customer base.
For example: 15 years ago, China was a country full of very few haves and well more than a billion have-nots. Now there is an exponentially larger upper class and a still-burgeoning middle class that will only grow in size as the country builds more cities and infrastructure and maintains its economic model. In short, there will be no regression for decades if things stay as they are.
Contrast that with the U.S., which has a potential customer base that is shrinking thanks to a number of factors, from more direct competition to tighter credit.
Contrast that yet again with much of Europe, which despite relatively stagnant population growth and pockets of severe economic issues (among other reasons) is considered an expanding market for the next 20-30 years. Why? Two reasons out of several: Automakers such as BMW are broadening their lineups to, in turn, broaden their customer base -- which does not exclusively think of BMW as a luxury automaker, by the way -- and long-term thinking in terms of product planning. Basically, Europe (and, to an extent, Asia) is the entire reason BMW and several other automakers are developing EVs so vigorously.
Simplistic and/or U.S.-only thinking just makes people look like fools regarding this stuff. C'mon. On this scale, think globally or get left behind, either in the short term or the long-term.
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We're on the same page! My whole point was that BMW, like other companies in a similar position, is painting the picture they want to highlight only the positive aspects of their performance, burying the undesirable figures at the bottom of the report.
The other piece with China is their unpredictability, even with their expanding customer base, their government could potentially come in and shut down operations or implement a ridiculous import tax once their domestic auto manufactures are more competitive with foreign offerings.
Only time will tell.