World’s biggest car makers suffer after profits plummet in 2018

DESPITE a year of innovation and a surge in new product, the value of the automotive industry’s biggest global companies fell by £100bn in 2018.

It was well documented that the industry was plagued with problems globally last year, caused mainly by import tariffs, political pressures and fueltype concerns - and 15 of the largest publicly listed car manufacturers dropped in value.

At the start of the year, they had a shared market value of almost £700bn, but by the end of 2018, this had dropped by £122bn to £588bn.

One of the largest automotive companies, Mercedes parent company Daimler felt the problems most and issued two profit warnings, with its value falling by £22bn.

Ford saw the second biggest drop, down £13bn, with Volkswagen close behind, down £12bn.

Speaking to the

Telegraph, professor

David Bailey of Aston University’s economics, finance & entrepreneurship department, said: “The shares of some car companies - such as Ford - have been in decline for several years, but 2018 saw a sharp reversal for others that had previously been doing well. This has been driven by both sector-specific and broader economic trends. From a sector point of view, diesel’s demise has dented profits and companies are having to invest heavily in new technologies such as electric and autonomous cars.”

He added: “The threat of a tariff war between the US and China and a big slowdown in China has dented growth prospects.”