Towards a New Map of Automobile Manufacturing in Europe?

1 New Challenges to the Automobile Production Systems in Europe.- 1.1 Introduction.- 1.2 The European Automobile Industry in Global Context.- 1.2.1 The global significance of the European automobile system.- 1.2.2 Europe’s position in the global strategies of the major automobile producers.- 1.3 The Automobile Production Systems Approach.- 2 National and International Regulatory Frameworks: The Politics of European Automobile Production and Trade.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 National Regulatory Environments in Europe.- 2.3 International Regulation: the European Community’s Policies Towards Auto Production and Trade.- 2.4 Concluding Comments.- 3 “Europeanisation” in the Automotive Components Sector and Its Implications for State and Locality.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 The Changing Geography of Automotive Components Production in the United Kingdom.- 3.3 “Europeanisation” and Corporate Strategies in the Automotive Component Sector.- 3.3.1 Bosch.- 3.3.2 Valeo.- 3.3.3 Four major UK companies: Lucas, GKN, T & N, BBA.- 3.3.4 Four major US companies: TRW, Allied-Signal, ITT and Tenneco.- 3.3.5 Japanese component companies and Europe.- 3.4 Concluding Comments.- 4 The Japanese, the European Market and the Automobile Industry in the United Kingdom.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 Competition Between Automobile Companies in the United Kingdom.- 4.3 Cooperation Between Automobile Companies in the United Kingdom.- 4.4 Cooperation Between Component Suppliers and Automobile Producing Companies in the United Kingdom.- 4.5 Competition and Cooperation Between Component Companies in the United Kingdom and European Community.- 4.6 Capital: Labour Relations.- 4.7 State Regulation of Japanese Competition: European Community Trade Policies, National Interests and Corporate Interests.- 4.8 The Local and Regional Development Implications of Japanese Inward Investment: Just-in-Time and In One Place ?.- 4.9 Concluding Comments.- 5 The German Automobile Production System Going European.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Market Structures During the 1980s.- 5.3 Competitiveness via the Technological Competences of Automobile Producers.- 5.3.1 The emergent spatial pattern.- 5.3.2 Choices in product and process.- 5.3.3 Two joint strategies: Europeanisation and flexibilisation.- 5.3.4 The 1990s.- 5.4 Organisational and Spatial Restructuring of the Components Sector.- 5.5 Consequences for Labour.- 5.6 The Changing Geography of the German Automobile Production System During the 1990s.- 6 The Italian Automobile Industry and the Case of Fiat: One Country, One Company, One Market ?.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 The Italian Automobile Industry: Some Structural Features.- 6.3 The Relationship Between the Automobile Industry and Government Economic Policies.- 6.3.1 Protectionist policies.- 6.3.2 Bail-out policies.- 6.3.3 Policies of territorial re-equilibrium.- 6.3.4 Other forms of state intervention.- 6.4 Spatial Strategies and Reorganisation Strategies.- 6.4.1 The approach: the automobile industry as a complex industrial system.- 6.4.2 From expansion to crisis.- 6.4.3 The first turning point.- 6.4.4 The 1980s: the great rationalisation.- 6.5 Continuity and Discontinuity in the Geography of the Italian Automobile System.- 6.6 Concluding Comments.- 7 Competitive Strategies in the World Market: The Case of Renault and the Emergence of a European Group ?.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Why Did European Automobile Companies Have to Make Strategic Changes ?.- 7.3 A Basic Answer: Improving Efficiency.- 7.3.1 Project structures.- 7.3.2 Development of quality.- 7.3.3 Automation, just-in-time manufacturing and supply.- 7.3.4 A new supply policy.- 7.3.5 Restructuring the European plants.- 7.3.6 National and international agreements.- 7.4 A Missed Opportunity: Renault’s Failure to Grow Outside Europe.- 7.4.1 The missed deal in the USA.- 7.4.2 The weak positions in other countries.- 7.5 The Result: The Weaknesses of Renault in the 1990s.- 7.6 A European Answer: Rise and Fall of the Renault-Volvo Merger.- 7.6.1 1990–1993: the deepening of the alliance.- 7.6.2 September 1993: the move towards a merger.- 7.6.3 December 1993: the merger failure.- 7.7 Privatisation and After?.- 7.7.1 Towards a Renault-Fiat deal ?.- 7.7.2 Towards new international alliances within Europe.- 8 The Restructuring of the Swedish Automobile Production System.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 The Swedish Automobile Production System — Some General Characteristics.- 8.3 Volvo and Saab: Corporate Structures and Strategies.- 8.3.1 Diversification.- 8.3.2 Internationalisation.- 8.3.3 Production organisation and location.- 8.4 1970 to 1987: From Crisis to Success.- 8.5 1988 to 1992: Renewed Crisis and Intensive Restructuring.- 8.5.1 Saab Automobile.- 8.5.2 Volvo.- 8.6 Post 1992: Future Prospects for Swedish Car Production.- 8.6.1 Lost national identities ?.- 8.6.2 Prospects for component suppliers.- 8.7 Concluding Comments.- 9 Multi-purpose Vehicles, a New Opportunity for the Periphery ? Lessons from the Ford\VW Project (Portugal).- 9.1 Introduction.- 9.2 Prospects for the Growth of Multi-purpose Vehicles: The Visible Hand of the Single Market.- 9.3 The Automobile Industry in Portugal.- 9.3.1 The formation of the industry.- 9.3.2 The current situation.- 9.4 The Ford Wolkswagen (AutoEuropa) Project.- 9.4.1 Background.- 9.4.2 A brief description of the project.- 9.4.3 Investment and financing.- 9.4.4 Production and markets.- 9.4.5 Employment.- 9.4.6 The process of setting up supplier-networks.- 9.4.7 The geography of direct suppliers: possible outlines of an emerging archipelago.- 9.5 Concluding Comments.- 10 Interdependent and Uneven Development in the Spatial Reorganisation of the Automobile Production Systems in Europe.- 10.1 Introduction.- 10.2 Challenges to the Core from Western and Southern Europe.- 10.3 Central and Eastern Europe — the New ‘Frontier’ of European Automobile Production.- 10.4 Resistance to the Erosion of the European Automobile Core.- 10.5 Towards a New Map of Automobile Production in Europe ?.- Author Index.- Location Index.