China has held the mantle as the world’s largest new vehicle market for 17 straight years, which explains why long-established legacy automakers have jumped through so many hoops for a piece of the action. But what once was the envy of automotive executives from Detroit to Stuttgart has overheated with capacity to build way too many vehicles for the domestic market. There are about 150 automakers in China today, and only about a dozen are likely to survive the great purge. Something’s gotta give.
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