Corey Smith Horsham Discusses the Evolution of the Global Automotive Market
The car industry that existed a decade ago barely resembles the one operating today. Manufacturing hubs have shifted. Buyer priorities have changed. The balance of power among automakers looks nothing like it did before electrification took hold.
Corey Smith Horsham has been following these shifts closely. The picture that emerges from recent industry data is one of genuine structural change, not a passing trend cycle.
A Market Growing Unevenly
Global vehicle sales have not moved in a straight line this year.
Overall car demand has softened in several major markets
Worldwide sales are down roughly 5% year-on-year during the first half of 2026
The decline is driven largely by weaker demand in China and the United States, amid economic pressure and shifting policy environments
Electric vehicles, meanwhile, kept climbing, global EV sales jumped 35% in the second quarter compared with the first, setting record quarterly totals across roughly 50 countries
Corey Smith Horsham points to this split as the defining feature of the current market: growth and contraction happening at the same time, in the same industry, often in the same countries.
Traditional gasoline and diesel sales are shrinking in most regions. Electric and plug-in hybrid models are absorbing a growing share of what buyers actually purchase. Industry estimates now put electric vehicles at close to 29% of global car sales this year, up from roughly 9% just five years ago.
China's Expanding Reach
One theme Corey Smith Horsham returns to often is the scale of China's role in this transition.
Chinese automakers exported nearly as many EVs in the first half of 2026 as they did across all of 2025
More than a million Chinese-built EVs currently sit in inventory outside the country
That surplus is likely to push prices lower in the months ahead, especially in price-sensitive emerging markets
BYD has become emblematic of this shift. The company sold well over two million electric vehicles in 2025, moving past Tesla in total global deliveries. Its lineup spans affordable compact cars, crossovers, and plug-in hybrids, giving it reach across income brackets that few rivals can match.
Tesla remains a recognizable name and still moves real volume. But Corey Smith Horsham notes that the era of one company defining the EV category has passed. Chinese manufacturers, taken together, now account for the majority of EVs sold worldwide.
Regional Divergence
The regional differences are stark:
Europe — EV sales rose close to 30% year-on-year in the first quarter, with full-year growth forecast above 20%. Battery electric vehicles make up close to seven in ten EV deliveries there.
Asia (outside China) — EV sales grew roughly 80% over the same period.
Latin America — EV sales grew above 70%.
United States — Growth projections have slipped, pulled down by policy rollbacks and a maturing domestic market.
Corey Smith Horsham suggests this last divergence will likely widen before it narrows. Battery costs, now estimated near $84 per kilowatt-hour, keep falling and are making EVs cost-competitive with conventional cars across more segments each year, a shift already visible in China's smaller vehicle classes.
What Comes Next
Corey Smith Horsham's read on where the market heads next centers on three forces:
Falling battery costs
Tightening emissions standards in Europe
A flood of competitively priced vehicles coming out of China
Combined, these are expected to push electric vehicles toward roughly half of global car sales by the mid-2030s, according to current industry projections. The path there won't be smooth, trade tensions, regional policy swings, and uneven charging infrastructure will keep creating pockets of both rapid growth and stalled demand.
For automakers built around internal combustion, the adjustment involves more than adding electric models to a lineup. It means rethinking:
Supply chains
Battery sourcing
Pricing strategy
All at a moment when Chinese competitors are exporting at scale and setting price expectations that legacy brands now have to match or explain away.
Corey Smith Horsham broader point is simple: the global automotive market isn't just electrifying. It's reorganizing around new manufacturing centers, new price points, and a buyer base that increasingly treats electric vehicles as the default, not the alternative. The companies that adapt fastest to that reordering, not the ones with the deepest combustion-era roots, are the ones likely to define the industry's next decade.

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