Automotive industry

The automotive industry refers to the design, manufacture, marketing and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's biggest economic sectors in terms of the money it makes. The automotive industry began in the 1890s with hundreds of manufacturers making the "horseless carriage". The Ford Model T was one of the first cars to be sold for very little money. For a long time, the United States was the biggest producer of automobiles. In 1929, before the Great Depression, the world had 32,028,500 automobiles in use. The U.S. automobile industry had produced over 90% of them. At that time, the U.S. had one car per 4.87 persons. From the 1960s, Japan became the second biggest producer of automobiles in the world. China became the world leader in making automobiles in 2009.