Who ACTUALLY Made Your Car? | WheelHouse

- Your favorite car company may be owned by another car company and you don't even know it. (upbeat music) Jeep? Property. Acura? Property. Hunt? Come on, property. So the question is who owns who? Or is it who? Today, most car companies are owned by a larger corporation. In fact, only 15 corporations worldwide own the majority of automobiles manufactured today. We're seeing fewer and fewer independent automakers, and that can be both good and bad. Let's start with one of the largest companies in existence, General Motors. Today, they raise more than $145 billion a year. But GM wasn't always so successful.

They started as a holding company which, in its simplest form, is a company that buys other companies. Their first acquisition was Buick in 1907. And soon after, they acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, which later became GMC. In 1918, they acquired Chevrolet, a brand that would grow to become one of the biggest breadwinners of the GM family. But it's not just about American brands. GM also owns Chinese manufacturers Wuling, Baojun and Jiefang. Just a disclaimer, there will be a lot more Chinese names and I'll probably delete those too. This show is not vegan because I am butchering everything.

Oh! That's stupid. Other automotive companies in the GM family include Holden, Saab, Opel and Daewoo. Of them, only Holden and Opel continue to manufacture cars. And I should point out that Opel is no longer owned by GM, but by another group, called PSA. The PSA group is a French multinational that owns Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Vauxhall and the premium DS brand. They once owned Chrysler Europe, which they bought in 1978 for $1. If I had the opportunity to buy Chrysler for $1, I'm not sure I would have

made

the same decision. PSA earns more than $75 billion a year, making it the largest French automaker.

But just below them is Renault. (upbeat music) Renault makes 58 billion a year, but they are part of a larger group called the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance, I love the word alliance. Although they are not technically a fusion, in some ways they function as one. Renault has a 43% stake in Nissan, Nissan has a 15% stake in Renault and a 34% stake in Mitsubishi. This umbrella group is the parent company of Infiniti, Datsun, Dacia, AvtoVAZ, Alpina and the defunct Lada brand. In total, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubish Alliance generates $190 billion in annual sales, making it the third largest automobile manufacturing group in the world. So what does all this mean for the consumer?

Well, large car companies allow you to buy a car at a low price. Right now, you can buy a new Nissan Versa for $13,000. But it probably cost Nissan hundreds of millions of dollars to develop this damn thing. A car company that is just starting to take off can't afford to sell a car that cost them hundreds of millions of dollars for so cheap. But Nissan can. The profit margin on economy cars is razor-thin, but Nissan sells millions of Versas to make up for it. It's also easier to mass produce parts that can be fitted to many different models, rather than developing a car from scratch.

You've probably heard of a car company going to the parts bin, right? One downside to this is that all the cars can start to look the same, or at least feel the same. Using Nissan as an example, the GTR, a $200,000 supercar, could share parts with much, much cheaper cars in its range. Chrysler merged with Italian automaker Fiat in 2014 to form Fiat Chrysler Automobiles or FCA. The merger had been in the works since Chrysler announced its bankruptcy in April 2009, but it did not come to fruition until five years later. This group is responsible for $111 billion in sales per year and is

made

up of many smaller subsidiaries.

Chrysler owns Jeep, Dodge and Ram, but is also the parent company of other defunct brands, including AMC, Eagle and Plymouth. Fiat owns Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Lancia and has a 90% stake in Ferrari. (metal music) You know that guy in high school who always had a girlfriend? That's Chrysler. But now he declares bankruptcy. But he also has a hot Italian wife. Anyway, the Daimler name has been around since 1880, but it wasn't until 1926 that they merged with Benz to become Daimler Benz and began producing the Mercedes brands. As a conglomerate, they are responsible for over $188 billion in annual sales worldwide.

These numbers are so large that they are losing meaning. They own Mercedes Benz, Smart and the now defunct Maybech, along with the Chinese companies Denza and BAIC. Although they are often in the same category, BMW earns around $75 billion less than Mercedes, or just under $113 billion a year. Wow, BMW, you suck. Bayerische Motoren Werke owns Mini and Rolls Royce, and I'm pretty sure I destroyed that name too. (upbeat music) Toyota is another company that has a lot of different cookie jars on its hands. They raised almost $261 billion last year, with their brands Lexus, Hino Motors, Daihatsu, three other Chinese companies, as well as the defunct Scion brand.

They also own a 5.9% stake in Isuzu and 16.6% in Suburu. And that's how you get almost identical cars, like the Toyota 86, Suburu BRZ, and Scion FR-S. They share many of the same parts and are essentially the same car. Surprisingly, Toyota's biggest Japanese competitor, Honda, makes about half as much as them, $139 billion, with Acura being the only other flagship car they own. South Korea-based Hyundai owns Kia and Genesis, and rakes in nearly $86 billion a year. The Tata Group, headquartered in Mumbai, India, makes $100 billion in sales through its Jaguar, Land Rover and, of course, Tata brands. The only Chinese group that appears on this list is Geely.

The group has been around since 1986 and did not really enter the automobile market until 1997, making it one of the newest and most successful automobile manufacturers to date. This group owns the Chinese brands Geely and Lynk, as well as Lotus, Volvo and Proton. They generate around $15 billion a year in sales. The only two brands on this list that are independent are Japan-based Suzuki and relative newcomer Tesla. They make around $34 billion and $12 billion in sales respectively. Suzuki has been around for over 100 years and its profits depend largely on sales of motorcycles and ATVs. Tesla has only been around since 2003, so how can they compete with the big guys?

Tesla's business strategy was to sell its high-end electric cars to a wealthier audience at first. More expensive vehicles have a much higher profit margin, so fewer sales are needed to make the money back. Then, as they became more financially stable, they were able to release models that were more affordable to a broader consumer base. So sales of high-end models funded the research and development of their people's car, the Model 3. Basically, it was the opposite business model for Volkswagen, which happens to be the number one highest-producing conglomerate in the entire industry. automotive. (Car tires screech) The Volkswagen group consists of Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen, Bentley, Bugatti, Seat, Skoda and Lamborghini, as well as other smaller subsidiaries.

They raised more than $278 billion in 2018 and employ more than 630,000 people in 153 countries around the world. Last year they produced 10,083,000 vehicles. Sure,

your

favorite brand might be owned by some bigger and probably more boring brand, but don't let that discourage you. Because without that help,

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