AUTOMOTIVE
Passenger Vehicles
World's Most Productive Companies
Transformation Accelerates in Passenger & Light Duty Vehicles
The Passenger/Light Duty Vehicle Peer Group comprises global manufacturers of internal combustion engines (ICE) and electric vehicles for consumer transportation markets. They all operate in an environment characterized by electrification, increasing software intensity of vehicles, and changing regulations. Volumes remain cyclical, chips strategic, and trade rules pivotal. EU CO₂ targets, U.S. IRA rules, and tariffs influence portfolio allocation and localization.
Supply shocks, demand distortions from COVID, increasingly strict climate policies, trade actions, EV economics, and high interest rates reshaped volumes, mix, pricing, and capital allocation across all these automakers since 2019.
Top 100 World's Most Productive Companies - Passenger Vehicles
Productivity Snapshot
Passenger Vehicle manufacturers experienced a similar productivity trend to many other industries and peer groups: a surge in productivity from 2020 to 2023, followed by a decline in productivity in 2023 and 2024.
- Productivity in the sector increased by 11.6% over the last six years. This segment, like automotive generally, performed well above the average for manufacturers represented in the IPI, but has drifted into stagnation over the last two years.
- Sixteen of the eighteen companies experienced negative productivity growth in 2023 and 2024.
- In 2024, Productivity declined an average of 1.5% across these companies.
- Kia earned its position within the LNS 2025 World’s Most Productive Companies by growing productivity 176% more than the average of its peers over the last six years. Kia’s leading productivity performance is driven by a disciplined model mix upgrade (including a faster shift to higher-margin SUVs and electrified variants) and its investment in flexible, hybrid production architectures (conveyor + cell) ahead of many competitors.
- Toyota, Mercedes, GM, and BYD earned their positions on the LNS 2025 World’s Most Productive Companies list by growing productivity faster than their regional peers over the last six years.
