The pace of competitive pressures in the European and World automotive market continues unabated and is likely to accelerate through the rest of the century. The nett result is that in the drive for market share/volume and profitability, the assemblers are continually attempting to establish product differentiation while minimising their internal/external financial exposure, the costs of refreshing the model range being immense. In the recent past, apart from refreshing the model range, companies have attempted to establish market leadership through additional features and functions, product improvement, quality and reliability and pricing. These have had significant effects on the automotive component supply industry to whom the vehicle assemblers increasingly look to deliver these features at ever reducing cost while sharing the development and capital risks. The impact of a major focus on logistics is likely to magnify and accelerate initiatives under way at the strategic and tactical levels with component suppliers and poses significant challenges in particular to the automotive electronic component designers and producers.
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