Poll: U.S. Car Firms to Gain Market Share

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto companies will boost market share during the next five years, according to a survey of global automobile executives released today.

The 12th annual global automotive survey by KPMG LLP, the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm, predicted growth among U.S. automakers would be spurred by product innovation, restructuring and continued improvement in product quality.

The outlook marks a dramatic turnaround in their expectations from a year ago, according to the polling of 200 senior executives in the global auto industry.

When asked to predict global market share winners over the next five years, the executives picked Ford Motor Co. About 43 percent saw Ford gaining market share, compared with 29 percent in 2010 and 13 percent in 2009. That was above the 40 percent that predicted Toyota Motor Corp. would gain market share, reported The Detroit News.

Ford's market share grew to 16.7 percent in 2010 from 15.5 percent in 2009.

General Motors Co. saw the most significant climb among the respondents in this year's survey. Forty percent of executives expect its market share to increase over the next five years, up from 13 percent in 2010 and 15 percent in 2009.

GM's market share declined last year to 19.1 percent from 19.8 percent in 2009.

Chrysler Group LLC also saw a double-digit increase in the percentage of executives predicting improvement — finishing at 24 percent compared with 7.5 percent in 2010.

Chrysler's share of the market increased to 9.4 percent in 2010, up from 8.9 percent in 2009.

"It was quite astounding," said Gary Silberg, national automotive industry leader for KPMG. "The reality is the data is starting to support that."

The results "demonstrate that the restructuring efforts of the past several years have helped U.S. auto manufacturers emerge more efficient and more competitive," he said. About half of the executives polled were from Europe, while a quarter each came from Asia and North America.

Silberg noted that auto executives are predicting a bigger rebound for the U.S. auto market of as much as 13.3 million vehicles sales in 2011 after sales jumped to 11.6 million vehicles in 2010 from 10.4 million vehicles in 2009.