Africa, particularly South Africa, has increasingly become one of the major automotive manufacturing centres of the world, producing high quality products at prices competitive with other automotive manufacturing and assembly centres, despite the distance from some of the major markets.
MBendi and Autocluster Africa have joined forces to provide Autocluster Africa Weekly Report, an Internet-based service for decision makers in the African Automotive sector. The service aims to give companies a competitive advantage in pursuing the huge opportunities that exist in this sector worldwide.
Autocluster Africa is a leading automotive research partnership, while MBendi runs Africa’s premier business website, used by more than 300,000 people from around the world each month to identify and research African business opportunities.
One of the current issues that is concerning global participants in the motor vehicle industry is the impact the industry has on the environment. Concern over climate change, global warming and environmental degredation have caused motor vehicle manufacturers to seek more environmentally-friendly options for fuel systems.
The United States is still the largest consumer of oil, but due to rapid economic and population growth, China's demand for oil has been growing at a rapid rate. In terms of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement set up to establish mandatory targets to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, such as carbon dioxide, or, trade in emissions if they are maintained or increased, China has started to participate in the emissions reduction process, namely, working together with Western motor vehicle manufacturers in the areas of fuel cell development.
Conditions set out by the Kyoto Protocol have caused motor vehicle producers in Europe and other countries, except the US, to make considerable advancement in decreasing carbon dioxide emissions from newly manufactured motor vehicles. However, ongoing efforts and measures are needed if long-term targets are to be fully met in accordance with the Protocol.
